Nameless
by CrazyNerdyFangirl
Summary: The Flock gets their memories erased by the whitecoats, who are trying to give them normal lives. Max and Fang hate each other, not knowing about their past. What happens when a witch uses magic to get them together? Modern Beauty & the Beast with twists.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: This is my first fanfiction, so please don't kill me if it sucks. I'm too young to die!!!!!!!!!!!! :'( Don't kill me if Fang is slightly OOC either, he was on drugs!**

**Full Summary: Max and the Flock get their memories erased and their wings removed by the whitecoats, who try to give them "normal lives" to make up for what they've done in the past. Max and Fang go to a normal high school without the knowledge that they are completely _not_ normal. Max and Fang hate each other, but what happens when they meet a witch who is determined to get them together? She uses a spell that is practically "foolproof". Kind of a modern Beauty and the Beast, but not exactly. Same concept, though. And things get even more interesting as Max and Fang's powers start showing up again. The rest of the flock may show up later. Will they stay all human or will they find out about the past the whitecoats are keeping from them?**

Max POV

I couldn't believe it. They were actually going to go through with the operation. I could imagine the whitecoats doing this, but with my own _mother's _consent? Never. We were in a plain white room with a lot of white fancy-schmancy pristine scientisty-looking equipment. There were uncomfortable-looking hospital beds with straps for arms to go through. And those straps looked almost unbreakable. There were tools for surgery on tables next to the chairs. I saw something that looked like a scalpel. There were sinks and cabinets behind the chairs. The medicinal smell was making me light-headed and dizzy, but I fought the urge to throw up in one of the sinks. I was getting claustrophobic because of the lack of windows.

"Don't do this!" I screamed. I saw my mom's face fall, and she looked sorry.

"This is for the best, Max. You'll have the normal life any teenager should have." She really believed what she was doing was right. Fang was standing next to me, glaring at the whitecoats. He didn't say anything, but I could tell he wanted to rip them all apart. The only thing that was keeping him from doing that was the M-geeks that were restraining us. They were freakishly strong and had weapons. Crazy M-Geek + Gun = Dead or Seriously Injured Bird-Kid. The only thing that was keeping the M-Geeks from killing _us_ to get revenge for the deaths of their fellow brainless robots who had died at the hands of the flock was because the whitecoats were convinced that they would so something _good _for us for a change. Good in _their_ opinion, at least.

"You'll never take us alive," Gazzy said menacingly, but the scary effect was ruined by the little quiver in his voice at the end. He was so dang… cute when he tried to act all macho.

"Shut up, Gazzy. They have good intentions, but I wouldn't want to make them mad if I were you," Angel warned. She was reading the whitecoats' minds. So I guess they weren't lying when they said they wanted to help us. They were just going about it the wrong way.

"Can I ask _how_ erasing our memories of our lives as the flock is going to help us?" the sarcasm in my voice was obvious, and my mom flinched a little. The rest of the whitecoats still seemed to believe that they were being absolute _angels_ by doing this. Jeb just looked at me pityingly, like he knew something that I didn't. I was reminded of the look on his face whenever he used to tell me how everything was all about the "bigger picture".

"Max, don't you want a normal life? You can forget about your wings and everything bad that has happened to you. We can create new, normal identities for you. You can forget everything," my mom asked, pleading with me. I almost gave in and went along with this operation willingly. She was my _mom. _Maybe she _did_ know what was best for me. Fang stepped closer to be and put his arms around my shoulders comfortingly. I was reminded that if I let them do this… I would forget all about Fang. So soon after we got together. My hormonal teenage side wouldn't have that.

"No damn way," I said coldly. Fang squeezed my shoulders in approval, and I smiled. Together, we would get out of here.

A whitecoat walked into the room. Nobody had noticed him come in until he cleared his throat. He barely seemed to notice the tension in the air. He turned to Jeb, ignoring everyone else. "Jeb, we have to start the operations _now_. We have a planned schedule for everything and we can't afford to fall behind."

"Fine," Jeb said, nodding his head.

My mom looked at me. I glared at her, but she seemed unaffected this time. "You'll see that this is for the best, Max. Erasing your memories of your wings and your childhood will give you a normal life. Max, I know that you want that, even though you don't realize it now."

"I'm sure I do. Very, very deep down. So deep down that it's almost non-existent. Oh, that's right, it _is_ non-existent," I said with as much sarcasm as I could muster. The M-Geek that was holding my arms behind my back squeezed them hard. I couldn't help but give a little squeak of pain. Fang glared at the robot, but couldn't do anything because he didn't want it suddenly attacking him.

"We've wasted enough time as it is." Jeb sounded worried, but not about the condition of his _only daughter_. He was worried about the freaking time! Shame on you, Jeb. You and your horrible parenting skills are a disgrace to the world and all the crazy evil scientists in it. Jeb didn't even look at me. "Knock them out," he commanded the M-Geeks. Since when was he in charge of the M-Geeks?

"Yes, Master." I saw the M-Geek take a syringe out of his pocket. How are they going to remove my freaking _wings?_ That was essential in giving me a "normal" life, right? This is gonna hurt. That was the last thought I had before the M-Geek plunged the needle into my arm and I blacked out.

Two Hours Later Fang's POV

I guess the whitecoats hadn't even had enough sense to give me enough anesthetic because two hours into the Extremely Fucked-Up Operation (as I had begun to call it), I became conscious, complete with fucked-up, debilitating headache. I wasn't really awake, just more aware of my surroundings than when I was completely unconscious. I felt something was attached to my head that had wires coming out of it that were clamped onto the back of my neck and on my head. I opened my eyes and saw that there were more multicolored wires and needles sticking out of my arms. Strangely, it didn't hurt. Must be the drugs. I really hoped I wasn't on Valium. I shuddered as I remembered how _Max_ had reacted to Valium. Damn, I really hoped I hadn't been spewing love sonnets for Max while I was under the influence of the drugs. Wait. Had I just thought the words "love sonnets"? Note to Self: Stay away from drugs if possible. I was losing my manliness by the second. Another Note to Self: Kill someone to regain manly badassness when this was all over. If I was still alive, that is.

None of the whitecoats had noticed that I had opened my eyes. I had expected to see one stick a needle into me when they noticed. I looked around the room again, and mentally slapped myself. They hadn't noticed because they were all outside the room. Duh, Fang. I'm so smart, aren't I? Don't answer that. I glanced at the bed next to me and felt my anger surge. They had strapped Max there. She was unconscious, but she was twitching and her mouth was open in a silent scream, like she was having some drug-induced bad dream. I wanted to rip the whitecoats' heads off their extremely fat necks for doing this to her. Or cut them up with a chainsaw. Maybe my friend Bob the Vampire Zombie had one. Oh, crap. The drugs were making me delusional. Such pretty colors…

Max was subconsciously struggling in the bonds that held her to the bed. As much I wanted to be the great macho hero and save the damsel in distress (Max would kill me if she found out I had thought that), I couldn't. So I gritted my teeth and looked away. These "good intentions" of the whitecoats were going to make me kill them. What possessed them to think that giving us "normal" lives and erasing our memories was going to make us forgive them for what they did to us at the School? These supposedly smart scientists weren't so smart after all. Heck, I bet _Total_ could be smarter than them, and he's a flying, talking dog. No, scratch that. I bet _Iggy _is smarter than them. And that's saying something because he thinks building bombs will get him hot girls. I pity the pathetic, clueless bird-kid. Everyone knows that the only way to get girls is to act all brooding, dark, and emo. Kind of like Edward Cullen without the vampirism. And I didn't think he was emo either. Hmmmmmm…. interesting thought. An emo Edward Cullen. Would he bite himself and say that "it hurts so good"? What the fnick? I get doped up on drugs and I start thinking of _Twilight_? Crap, I can feel my manly machoness dropping again. At this rate, soon, I'll start to wear pink and want to be Nudge's bestest friend in the whole rainbows-and-flowers-filled world! Crap. Manliness just dropped another notch. Fang: 0. Weird Drugs That Exist Only For the Sole Purpose of Turning Fang into a Girl: 1.

I saw a whitecoat step into the room. I closed my eyes quickly, pretending I was still unconscious. I felt his footsteps approach me and I tensed slightly. He attached something to my head. I heard him starting a machine. I wondered if he really _was_ a he. I could have been thinking about a lady as a guy for the past few minutes. Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT. I really needed to get these random and irrelevant thoughts out of my head. I had bigger things to worry about. The machine started making beeping noises. Oh, shit. They were going to erase my memory _now_? Just a few weeks after Max and I had gotten together. Damn those scientists and their horrible timing. I guess their bad timing was why they hadn't wanted to be musicians. Suddenly, an image of Jeb trying to sing popped into my head. BAD FANG. BAD. DON'T THINK STRANGE THOUGHTS THAT WILL ONLY MAKE YOU WANT TO BLEACH YOUR EYES.

The machine's beeping was louder and more consistent now. I knew that these would be the last moments I would spend as Fang. After this, the whitecoats would create a new, "normal" identity for me. I wouldn't be the same person. On the last few moments, five words were running through my mind. Five words I had never had the guts to say to _her_. _I love you, Max. Forever._

Max POV

Time was running out. I wanted to get up and fight, but the straps that held me on the bed restrained me. How ironic. The Invincible Max has fought against numerous killing machines and won. But against bad-turned-good mad scientists with "good intentions"? She can't even go down fighting.

The machine connected to my head was doing its job. My memory was leaving me by the second. The memory of Fang and me kissing in the submarine when I thought I was about to die? Gone. The memory of our kiss in the desert; the first time I hadn't flown away from him? Gone. The memory of our first kiss on that beach so many months ago? Gone. The memory of the first time Gazzy demonstrated his "skill"? Gone. Well, there's one memory I was happy to part with. Slowly, the whitecoats got down to the earliest memory I had, of waking up in the School in a dog crate. And then that was gone too.

For a horrible moment, I was confused about everything. I didn't know if I existed or not. Maybe I was just a figment of some old guy's imagination. Was I real? Who was I? I couldn't feel anything, and my senses were deprived of feeling. Where was I? Was I alive or dead? For that one horrible moment, I didn't know anything. I was completely helpless. I was just a nobody, nameless. I tried to _think, _to sort out my thoughts, but my brain seemed to have stopped working.

Then I felt something being injected into my neck and I stopped trying to think at all.

**AN: Please, please, please, REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW. review and _maybe_ the vampire zombies will spare you when they take over the world and kill all non-believers. mua-ha-ha-ha-ha. :):):):):):) please? vampire zombies are so cuddly and loveable! nobody else thinks so... :'(**

**-CrazyNerdyFangirl a.k.a. Queen of the Vampire Zombies (even though I'm human)**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Thank you, thank you, thank you to those of you who reviewed! I loveth you all! *gives everybody virtual hugs*. To those of you who I promised an update last night (you know who you are), I'm really sorry. You know how people always say that you shouldn't tilt your chair back when you're sitting on it because you might fall? Well, I never listened to them, so I did that while writing this chapter last night. And the chair fell over. With me still in it. And I hit my head on the floor. Now the back of my head hurts whenever I poke it! Let's all rejoice in the joyousness. The major plot of this story doesn't really start until the next chapter or the chapter after that. And Max's POV in this chapter sucks. Well, I think it does. That was just a warning.**

Third Person POV

"The operations have been completed successfully, Jeb. We've managed to create new identities for all of them. They have new histories, and know nothing about their past life." The whitecoat gave a small, self-satisfied smile and sat down on a plush, velvety chair. He ran a hand through his graying red hair. Jeb's office was one of the fanciest in the facility, and Jeb was proud of it.

"Wonderful." Jeb had to admit, he was a genius, and there was no doubt about it. Well, there was no doubt in _his_ mind, at least. He fingered his graying hair thoughtfully. He was shocked that there was almost no hair left on his head. He was growing bald. One of the side effects of dealing with Maximum Ride.

"Are you completely sure that they will remember nothing?" Jeb asked, this time fingering his mustache thoughtfully. The other whitecoat had an almost irresistible urge to tell Jeb that if he kept stroking that mustache, which looked remarkably like a caterpillar, it would fall off and crawl away, then possibly turn into a butterfly.

"We are certain that they will fit in with their new environments perfectly. We have fixed everything the way you told us to," the whitecoat reported.

"Good. Have you done what I told you to do with their wings?" Jeb glared at the other whitecoat, daring him to give them wrong answer.

The other whitecoat scoffed at Jeb's worry. "Of course. That's the most important part, isn't it? We're not a couple of incompetent morons, even if you think we are."

"Good, good." Jeb was lost in his own thoughts, and waved a dismissive hand toward the whitecoat. Max would have to pass this test in order to save the world. Jeb had to make sure she was ready.

Jeb was so preoccupied with his own thoughts that he didn't notice that when the whitecoat was dialing a number on his cell phone as he was leaving the room. It was a number that he used often; it was his daughter's phone number. His daughter picked up her phone on the second ring.

"You could've just texted me. Gosh, Dad. You're sooooooooooo behind the times." The teenage girl said in a bored tone. The whitecoat rolled his eyes, but he knew he would have to put up with his daughter's whining if he wanted everything to go his way. "I'm out with my boyfriend right now. It better be important, Daddy." She spit out the last word venomously, sarcastically. It was a word that she had so often used in her childhood. A childhood that she had left behind before she should have. The whitecoat wished she was that little girl again. A little girl who had such a sweet personality that she was impossible to hate. These days, most people found her impossible not not hate.

"Fang is coming soon." Those five words from her father's mouth stopped the girl's whining immediately. She was all business now. The whitecoat didn't know which side of her was scarier, the one where she was like any other spoiled teenage girl or the one where she would do anything to have what she wanted.

"When?" she demanded.

"Two, maybe three days. He's recovering fast. They all are." The whitecoat smiled. As scary as this side of his daughter was, it reminded him of himself when he was younger. Stubborn, arrogant, and with a complete disrespect for authority.

"That bitch won't get him this time." The whitecoat could practically feel her anger through the phone.

"You know what to do?" he asked, even though he knew she did. They had gone over the plan so many times that he was sure that they had both memorized it by heart.

"Of course." The whitecoat heard a click on the phone. His daughter had hung up. Soon, he would get what he wanted and nobody could stop him. And to think, he only had Jeb and his well-intentioned plans to thank for the destruction of the world. Things would go _his_ way from now on.

In a small Arizona town far away from Death Valley, California, Lissa shut her phone to end the conversation with her father and smiled. She would finally get what she wanted. And she wanted _him,_ the only guy who had ever turned her down. Lissa narrowed her eyes as she thought about _that girl _who he had chosen over her. She curled her hands into fists as she recalled the torture she had to go through knowing that Fang had wanted _that girl_ and not Lissa.

But Lissa knew she had to bide her time. She had to get him in her grasps first. So she ran a hand through her curly red hair to calm herself down. "He _will_ be mine. No matter what it takes," she repeated to herself like a mantra. "He _will_ be mine."

More than a Year Later Max POV

I was standing in front of the high school, looking at it apprehensively. My sister Ella was behind me. She would be a freshman this year. At least she had friends at this school, while I had none.

"First day of school, huh?" she said, trying to sound cheerful. I just grumbled something under my breath. So I wasn't the best sister. Sue me.

Ella tried to look for her friends in the mass of students. As soon as she found one, she looked at me apologetically and ran toward the friend. They squealed when they saw each other and hugged. They acted like they hadn't seen each other the whole summer. I knew for a fact that Ella had been over at that girl's house just yesterday.

I walked into the school, keeping my eyes averted from other people. I walked into my first period class.

I breathed in the moldy smell of the English classroom of Jackson High School. First day of junior year. Sucks to be me. Everyone else was _so so so so_ excited that we only had to survive two more years of high school. Well, screw them. All I wanted to do was get back to bed. If there is a God, he should blow up the school so I wouldn't have to go. I would do it myself, but I would have to learn how to make a bomb first. Sigh. So much for my hopes and dreams. I looked around at the crowded classroom. Everything was the way it usually was. Everybody was avoiding me like I was a particularly stinky piece of trash. And I liked it that way. Not the part where I'm a piece of trash because nobody would want to be a piece of trash (unless you really hate your life but don't want to commit suicide or whatever), but I had been a loner since freshman year. Everybody thought I was a freak.

As I was walking toward a seat in the back of the classroom, I noticed Nick Callahan sitting with Lissa Monteray. With her curly red hair and stuck-up-ish posture, she would make a good queen of bitches. I stared at Nick's dark hair, black eyes, and preppy clothes. He had changed so much in the summer before freshman year. He had once been wiry and thin, but now he was… hot. That was probably not a good thing to think about your ex-best friend. I stared at the back of his head as he flirted with the Queen of Bitches, wanting him to look at me, but not look at me at the same time, if that makes any sense. But then, since when has high school made any sense? I looked away from Nick as I made my way to a seat at the back of the room, careful to avoid eye contact.

Damn it, the only seat available was next to Nick and Lissa. I hated those two lovebirds. They usually had their tongues down each other's throats. And true to form, they were doing it now. I wished with all my heart that Lissa would choke on Nick's tongue. It would serve them both right, especially Nick. I still hadn't gotten over how he had started ignoring me freshman year… but I told myself I wouldn't think about that. And I wasn't going to start thinking about it now.

I glanced at Nick and Lissa again. This time, they weren't making out anymore. Lissa practically had her boobs shoved in Nick's face. What a wonderful sight. The sad part was, Nick seemed to be enjoying it. He was touching her in places that really shouldn't be touched a classroom. And Lissa was doing the same thing. I looked away quickly. No need to be scarred for life. I kept my eyes on my desk for a few minutes, but then couldn't resist looking back… only to find the Nick had interrupted his hot-and-heavy make-out session and was staring at me. When he saw that I was looking at him, his eyes widened. I raised my eyebrows in reply. This was the way we used to communicate: with our eyes. I saw a hint of a blush on his cheeks and then he looked away. I smiled to myself. Nick smiling? At me? This had to be a first.

Third Person POV

"Why are we doing this to them, Jeb? They should be together," Dr. Martinez sighed, wondering how she had gotten involved in this in the first place. But Jeb had convinced her that this was for Max's own good.

"This is all part of the bigger picture, Valencia," Jeb said confidently.

"But it was wrong of us to take their memories away. They deserve to know about what really happened in their lives!" Dr. Martinez wondered how Jeb had dragged her into this. She was misusing the trust her own daughter's trust.

"You'll see. If everything goes according to my plan, they'll be together. Eventually." Jeb looked completely unconcerned, but inside, he was worried too. What if his plan hadn't been as perfect as he had thought?

"It's been more than a year. And sometimes, things don't go according to plan. Dr. Martinez glared at Jeb.

"We'll see about that."

**AN: Please review. I'm begging you. I'll have to make Fang ugly in this story because there's a Beauty and the Beast theme, so I'm taking suggestions on what he should look like. I'm not going to enjoy making Fang ugly because I love him too much. 3 I'm a total Fanggirl. If you have any ideas, PM me or review this chapter. I'll try to get chapter 3 up today, but no promises. This chapter was pretty short.**

**I saw the Lightning Thief movie today. And I really need to rant. So I'll let out all of my anger in this author's note. The whole reason for the quest was different! They weren't supposed to look for the pearls! When Luke gave them that map, I was like, WTF? UNDERLANDERfromtheOVERLAND, you were soooooooo rite. Anti-Columbus! HAHA. The actors were way too old. Annabeth had **_**blue**_** eyes. And did they even go to Nashville in the book? I think not. (well, actually, they might have, I haven't read the book in a while) They played Tik Tok in the movie! And it got stuck in my head. So even as I write this, I'm humming that annoying song. Tik, tok on the clock, but the party don't stop… But the casino scene was good overall. Percy wasn't supposed to get his sword at the museum. He was supposed to fight the Minotaur completely weaponless. That's why it was sooo cool when he won that battle. He wasn't supposed to know who his father was when he first got to Camp Half-Blood. He was supposed to find out in a game of capture the flag. And where were Clarisse, Ares, and the Helm of Darkness? The movie didn't even mention those things. Percy wasn't supposed to be able to wear the flying shoes. Zeus would have blasted him out of the sky. There was no River Styx in the movie. Instead, the boat was flying! Kronos wasn't even mentioned. The entrance to the underworld was messed up. And where was Cerberus? And the red rubber ball? I could go on and on complaining about the movie, but this author's note is getting long. So I'm going to stop. I'M EXTREMELY PISSED AT THE MOVIE. The only good thing was the guy who played Percy. Cuz he's hot!**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: I'd like to thank everyone who favorited/reviewed/ added this story to their story alerts. I honestly hadn't expected this many people to even read my story, so YAYZ. Bob the Vampire Zombie would like to give you all virtual hugs. One of my reviewers, The Layman**, **pointed out something that made me feel very stupid. Percy **_**did **_**get a sword at the museum. Which leads me to something else that was wrong in the movie. Percy never defeated Mrs. Dodds in the movie. I think she just flew out a window. I could be wrong though. I don't remember that much from the movie. I really appreciate everyone who gave me suggestions on what Fang should look like after his transformation. I think he'll change in the chapter after the next chapter. I think. The beginning of this story is longer than I thought it would be. And I totally agree with everyone who said that Fang can't be ugly (StarsLeanDownToKissYou, I'm scared of my iPod now. I don't want it to take over my brain. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh), but I have to make him less attractive. I don't know how I'll survive. :'( **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride because I'm not an old man who looks really creepy in pictures. I also don't own the lyrics to Vanilla Twilight by Owl City even though I love that song. It's my favorite Owl City song.**

**Claimer: I own my OC, Cassandra. *hugs Cassandra***

Max POV

_The stars lean down to kiss you_

_I lie awake to miss you_

_Pour me a heavy dose of atmosphere_

I groaned and reached over to my iPod, which was on shuffle, to skip the song. This song always made me sad. It reminded me too much of my own lonely life. It was pathetic how people fall in love but inevitably get hurt. Love was pointless, really. Fortunately, I had never been I love and never planned to be. Ever. I would die alone. And I was proud of that. Falling in love is only setting yourself up for heartbreak.

'_Cause I'll doze off safe and soundly_

_But I'll miss your arms around me_

_I'd send a postcard to you dear_

'_Cause I wish you were here_

My hand paused over my iPod. This song somehow triggered something weird in me. Like there was a memory tugging at the edges of my thoughts.

_I'll watch the night turn light blue _

_But it's not the same without you_

_Because it takes two to whisper quietly_

_The silence isn't so bad_

_Until I look at my hands and feel sad_

'_Cause the spaces between my fingers are right where yours fit perfectly_

_I'll find repose in new ways_

_Though I haven't slept in two days_

'_Cause cold nostalgia chills me to the bone_

_Drenched in vanilla twilight_

_I'll sit on my front porch all night_

_Waist deep in thought_

_Because when I think of you I don't feel so alone_

_I don't feel so alone_

_I don't feel so alone_

What the hell was wrong with me? I felt nostalgic for some reason. What was I trying to remember? I closed my eyes and let the thoughts that were trying to escape with the song wash over me.

_As many times as I blink_

_I'll think of you tonight_

_I'll think of you tonight_

_When violet eyes get brighter_

_When heavy wings grow lighter_

_I'll taste the sky and feel alive again_

Wings. Sky. Those were the only two words that stood out for me. I let my thoughts run free and felt the feel of the wind blowing against my face and the feeling of air underneath my feet. Wait. _Air underneath my feet_? I looked around and realized I had freaking wings. And these weren't some little wings that you would wear in a Halloween costume. These were freaking 14-foot wings that were different shades of brown. I was flying as if it was instinctual. I didn't even have to remember to flap. Suddenly, I saw an image of Nick in my mind. He was in the air with me. His long dark bangs were partially covering his eyes. He was wearing all-black, the way he used to dress before we started high school. I rarely saw him in black anymore, and I missed the old him. But the detail that stood out to me the most was that Nick had wings too. Beautiful, shiny black wings that glinted off sunlight. Something seemed different. He seemed more vulnerable and open to me. Less closed off to me than he is in real life.

He moved his black wings in synchronization with my brown ones. We flew closer and closer and I had no control over my body. It was like I was being pulled along like a puppet. Nick and I were almost touching. His dark eyes looked at me with compassion, caring, and… something more. Okay, this had to be some strange fantasy my brain conjured up. Nick and I with _wings_ and him _caring about me_? Never.

"Max," Nick whispered, "Right now, it's really all about-us." His eyes met mine, and he looked like he never wanted to look away. His eyes were scrutinizing me, making me self-conscious. He was looking at me with something bordering on… love. Love? Oh, dammit. This was definitely not real. He hadn't looked at me like he cared about me even a little for years.

Fantasy-me smiled at him. Blech. I would never do that in real life. At least, not anymore. I couldn't regain control of my body as Nick and I flew upward, our wings still moving in synchronization. How many _normal people_ can't get control of their own bodies as they _freaking fly_ with someone they vowed to hate? Nobody? Thought so. My wings carried me closer to Nick. I closed my eyes, lost in the feeling of flying and kissing and being with the one person I completely and utterly trusted. Wait a minute. Trusted? What the f—

_I'll forget the world that I knew_

_But I swear I won't forget you_

_Oh, if my voice could reach back through the past_

_I'd whisper in your ear_

_Oh darling, I wish you were here_

I blinked and struggled to get back to reality. What was that all about? I let my thoughts roam and I think about _Nick _of all people? I must be on drugs. _Max, try to remember. Just remember Fang, _a nagging voice in my head said. Who was Fang? A vampire? Great. A voice in my head wants me to remember a vampire. That happens to normal kids _every day_. Not.

Next day at School Fang/Nick's POV

"Did you see the new girl, Cassandra? She's uglier than _Max,"_ Lissa said. She snickered. I felt some mild irritation about her insulting Max but brushed it off quickly. Max meant nothing to me. Hell, no girl ever would. Not even Lissa, even though she wouldn't accept that.

"Yeah, I've seen her." She was in 3 of my classes. She looked like a total nerd and usually kept to herself, even more than Max. She never talked. Ever. And Lissa was right. She was pretty damn ugly.

"I heard she got kicked out of her old prep school because she slept with one of the teachers." Lissa smiled wickedly. "Everybody should know about it in about, oh I don't know, five minutes." Lissa snickered and looked down at her phone, on which she was texting everyone she knew. Lissa was a notorious gossip. Nothing happened without her knowing about it. And nothing was _big_ unless she knew about it. "This will be HIL-arious," she said in a singsong-y voice.

"Who would want to sleep with _her?_" my friend Sam, who was hanging out with Lissa and I like a freaking third wheel, said. He started chortling. I had to agree.

"Did you not hear me? I said a _teacher_ slept with her. Since when have teachers made any sense?" Lissa grinned an unholy grin.

"She's in my World History class. We should do something to her," Sam said. I rolled my eyes. Sam loved to mess with the new kids. I wondered if he was just going to tease the new girl relentlessly or actually think of something creative this time. It didn't matter. If what we decided to do was cruel, I would love it. The crueler the better.

**AN: R & R everyone! Sorry about the short-ish chapter. I was kind of rushed. If I update at all tomorrow, it will probably be a long chapter. Or maybe two short chapters. If you review, Bob the Vampire Zombie will give you another hug. I hate Robert Pattinson so much. He should go crawl in a hole and die.**

**Cassandra: Bob the Vampire Zombie doesn't exist.**

**Me: Yes he does! You're just a non-believer.**

**Cassandra: *rolls eyes* And you're just a crazy fangirl who thinks she owns me**

**Me: But I **_**do**_** own you.**

**Cassandra: No! I freaking hate you, you bitch!**

**Me: *cries* But you're supposed to respect your creator. I'm soooooooooo hurt.**

**Cassandra: Whatever.**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: I'd like to point out that this story takes place before FANG, for those of you who've already read it. I have to wait another month. Ugh. On the bright side, only one more month before it comes out in the U.S.! I can't wait to read it even though everyone says it's depressing. I'm one of those people who read spoilers and want to know what happens in a book before she reads it. I'm just weird that way. Oh, and to clarify, Nick and Lissa have been dating on and off since freshman year. Lissa thinks they're dating now, but Nick thinks that he could never love anyone. I'm trying to get to the actual plot of this story as quickly as possible but the beginning of this story is taking so long. Argh. I just sounded like a pirate. Robert Pattinson's acting makes me want to puke. That last sentence may seem really random, but my friend and I were just talking about why ROBERT PATTINSON CAN'T PLAY FANG IN THE MAXIMUM RIDE MOVIE! He can't pull off tall, dark, and mysterious. But worst of all, he doesn't have emo hair! If you agree with me, sign St. Fang of Boredom's petition. There's a link on my profile. Italics are flashbacks. **

Max POV

It was World History, my last class of the day. Our teacher was sick, so we had a substitute. We basically had a free period. The teacher wasn't even in the room. I sat in the back, out of sight. Nick and his popular friends were doing something they enjoyed and did very well: tormenting less popular people. Today, their victim was Cassandra, the new girl. She was almost as unfriendly and antisocial as me. Lissa had hated her the moment she had set eyes on her. Anybody who wasn't a popular slut and worshipped the color pink was her enemy. Lissa was faking being nice to Cassandra while insulting her at the same time. Sam, Nick and Lissa's friend, was laughing along. Nick, that bastard, looked bored but had a faint smirk on his face. He enjoyed it. I remembered how used to torment me tease me freshman year before they had moved on to a new victim.

_"Max, Can I tell you something, as a friend?" Lissa said, her voice as sweet as honey. But then, honey came out of a bug's rear end. Just like I suspected Lissa did. Lissa had Sam and Nick with her. _

_"Yes?" I tried to keep my voice cold, hoping she would go away and commit suicide._

_"Well, your ass looks really big in those jeans. Actually, it might not be those jeans. You're just plain fat. No offense." Lissa cackled evilly like the bitch she is. Nick laughed along with her. What was wrong with him? We had been best friends, how had he changed so much in one summer? At that moment, I knew for sure that he had crossed over to _Their Side. The Dark Side. _He had joined those egotistical bitches who thought that they were better than everyone else._

_I turned around and walked away, hearing Sam's, Lissa's, and Nick's laughter behind me. I knew that I couldn't trust anybody like I had trusted Nick again. Because trust only hurts you in the end. _

I looked at Lissa poking her finger in Cassandra's face while hissing something at her and Cassandra trying not to flinch. My fists clenched. I made a snap decision that I would probably regret. But I just _couldn't_ sit around doing nothing anymore. I jumped up from my desk and walked over to Nick's little group. I tapped Nick on the shoulder and he spun around, glaring at me.

"What do _you _want?' he growled, attempting to sound menacing. Too bad I had been hanging out with him when he had perfected that "menacing" growl back in 7th grade. I knew it was fake.

"I want you to leave the poor girl alone." I glared at him as badass as I could. I would love to say that it worked, but Nick just rolled his black eyes. I saw Cassandra's dull green eyes widen behind her thick glasses.

"Go away you bitch," Lissa glared at me and flicked me off. I didn't back down.

"Leave her alone. She didn't do anything to you." Wow, I was _defending someone._ Doing a _good deed._ I shuddered. Something must be wrong with me today. Since when had I cared about other people? I fixed Nick with my death glare that could make flowers wither and die. Nick just glared back. Guess he's not a flower.

"Go along and play with your friends, _Maxine._ Wait, you _have_ no friends. Oops. I forgot." Lissa knew I hated being called anything but Max. What she said about my lack of friends didn't really bother me, but the _way_ she said it, like I was pond scum that wasn't worthy of her acknowledgement, made me mad. That was it. I had had enough of this bitch. She had caused so much trouble in my life already, and she wasn't about to stop anytime soon. She treated me like crap and she was the main reason Nick had crossed over to the Dark Side.

I clenched my hand into a fist and made another one of my wonderful snap decisions. This time, I knew I wouldn't regret it. I swung my fist at her nose and heard a loud cracking sound. It was music to my ears. I smirked at Lissa, who was on the ground, holding a hand to her bleeding nose.

"What the hell, you fucking bitch?" Lissa screeched while blood spurted out of her nose and dripped down her face. I almost got out my phone and took a picture, but I was too busy laughing. The Queen of Bitches deserved it.

"Ugh, you are _so _going to get it." She stomped away with Sam on her heels. Sam glared at me, but I saw his mouth twitching. He was trying hard not to laugh. He looked like he wanted to say something to me, but shook his head and walked away.

Nick was still standing in the same spot. He looked at me with an almost amazed look in his eyes. I recognized this expression from when we were still friends. He was surprised but trying to hide it, failing epically. I glared at him, daring him to say something to me. He just stood there looking at me, in almost the same way he had looked at me when we were still best friends. A stray lock of blonde-streaked brown hair fell into my face, and Nick reached his hand out, almost as if he wanted to brush it away from my face. But I fixed him with another one of my famous death glares and he dropped his hand.

Nick sighed. "Max, can we talk?" he asked softly, probably so nobody could hear. Didn't want to be caught talking to a social pariah. What the hell? Why was he being nice now? _Was_ he being nice, or was he just setting me up for some humiliation? This was practically the first time Nick had talked to me in years. His voice was so much deeper and more confident than I remembered.

"No. You _had_ your chance to talk. Two years ago. It's too late, Nick." I said with as much coldness as I could muster. Nick's expression was undecipherable… to almost everyone but me. He looked almost like he cared about me. Like he wanted to be friends again. I avoided his eyes, knowing that if I looked into them, I would want to "talk". And that would be a bad thing. A very bad thing. Trust is an illusion. I turned my back to him and walked away, wondering if I had made the right decision. I knew I had. He probably wasn't even sincere. But if I was right, why did walking away from him feel so wrong? Oh, the joys of being a hormonal teenage girl. Oh, freaking joy.

Fang/Nick POV

Damn, _Max. _She was so stubborn. Closed in. Closed off. I followed Lissa, whose nose was still bleeding. She looked annoyed that I had stopped to talk to Max.

"That bitch _will_ pay," Lissa hissed as she walked to the nurse's office. She glared at nobody in particular, probably planning Max's downfall. Lissa's intense hatred of Max was getting old. Lissa didn't really have a reason for hating Max, she just did. I knew that part of the reason Max was considered an outcast was because of me and how I had made it clear that I didn't like her, but I didn't really care. Max was a big girl. She didn't need me. She hadn't even wanted to talk to me. Why had I even tried? I just had an uncontrollable urge to say something to her after she had stood up for that girl she probably didn't even know. Max had looked almost… pretty doing that. Damn, this was bad. I couldn't allow myself to think of her as _pretty. _But when had her mousy brown hair gotten blonde streaks? Why had I never noticed how her brown eyes seem to have gold flecks in them when they caught the light? Her body looked different and had more curves than they did in the 8th grade, too. I hated these damn _emotions_ I felt around Max, which were bordering on lo-, no, I wouldn't think that. I had never felt anything for any girls I had dated. So why was Max different? Maybe it was hormones that made me want her because she _didn't_ want me. Man logic is very confusing. I shook my head to clear my brain of all thoughts concerning Max. Max was a nobody. She meant nothing to me.

"What were you saying to _Maxine_?" Lissa whined, glaring at me.

"Nothing, Lissa." I gave her a quick peck on the cheek, willing her to forget about Max. It worked. Lissa gave a small giggle and held my hand, pulling me along to the nurse's office and promised that afterward, we could go somewhere more "private". I used all my willpower not to wrench my hand from hers. I would have to end it with Lissa once and for all soon. She was getting too clingy. It struck me how similar this situation the first day of high school. Max had just come back from a vacation in Europe with her family.

_I was standing in front of the doors of the high school, keeping my eyes out for _her. _What would she say when she say me? What would she say about the way I had changed?_

_"Nick! Hey!" Lissa came up to me and out an arm around me. I almost cringed away from her touch but didn't. I wanted an entirely different arm, belonging to an entirely different girl, around me. But she didn't love me; she had that clear the day before she had left for Europe. And I couldn't be _just friends_ with her. But I had Lissa now, and she gave me what I wanted. And me being a teenage boy, those are some dang perverted things. Lissa wrapped both of her arms around me and pulled me closer to her. Her body was pressed against mine. She put her lips to mine and began to kiss me passionately in full view of the school. I forced her mouth open with my lips, and my tongue entered her mouth. We were holding each other tightly, but I didn't feel close to her emotionally. I doubted I ever would. Her hands were on my back, but they were creeping lower and lower down._

_Suddenly, someone fake-coughed behind me. I turned around, letting go of Lissa quickly. And there was Max. Crap, she was beautiful. She had come back from her summer in Europe with a tan and her hair had grown out longer. I hadn't seen her for the whole summer because of her vacation, and as much as I hated to admit it, I had missed her. She looked hotter than ever, but maybe that was just my overactive testosterone. She had her hands on her hips and was glaring at Lissa and me. If it had been anyone other than Max, I would have said her expression was pouty. But Max doesn't pout. That would be too _girly.

_"What the hell are you doing with _her?_" Max sounded pissed, but also confused. The expression her face got when she was mad and confused at the same time was hot. Heck, I thought _any_ expression was hot on Max. Even the crazy murderous expression she got when someone stole her beloved cookies. I was that far gone. But I had tried to kiss her before this summer started. And she had rejected me, making me wonder if my breath had stunk or something. I doubt Max even remembered that almost-kiss._

_"Hey, Max. You know Lissa, right?" I asked with a smirk on my face. I would hurt Max like she had hurt me. Sweet, sweet revenge. _

_"What are you doing with th—that whore?" Max sputtered. There was a slight pink tinge to her cheeks and she looked downright murderous. Like she wanted Lissa and me to be thrown into a pit of carnivorous dogs that would tear us apart from limb to limb, leaving us to die slow painful deaths while Max pointed at us and laughed. _

_I put my arm around Lissa's waist and pulled her to me. "She's my new girlfriend. And a hot one at that." Lissa, being a total airhead, giggled like a little girl. She didn't realize that I was really only dating her to make Max mad. _

_"What is wrong with you?" Max yelled loudly, making some people nearby stare. _

_"I don't think there's anything wrong with _me._ But there's definitely something wrong with _you. _You've never even been kissed. Maybe you should have taken that kiss from me. What's the hell is wrong with you?" I knew I was hurting and humiliating Max, but I didn't care. We weren't friends anymore, so I owed nothing to her. She deserved whatever hurt and humiliation came her way. _

_Both Max's and Lissa's jaws dropped. Lissa because she hadn't known about my almost-kiss with Max and I had just provided her with some juicy gossip: Max had never been kissed. Max was shocked that I had spilled her secret. It was her own fault though. If only she loved me like I had loved her. _Had. _Past tense._

_"Nick." Max's eyes pleaded with me, willing me to tell her that the last few minutes were just a nightmare. That I wasn't cruel enough to spill her secret. She was damn wrong._

_Lissa walked up to Max. "Nick is mine now. Stay away from him," she threatened. I saw the pain and hurt in Max's eyes, but it was only for a moment. She put up her emotional shields almost as soon as she let her emotions show. That was Max. She always had to be strong._

_Max looked at me, searching for any clue as to why I had changed so much. "You can have that bastard for all I care. He means nothing to me." With those words, she turned and walked away. _

_As soon as Max left, Lissa attached herself to me again. She stood on her tiptoes and whispered in my ear seductively. "She's a bitch. And you're completely and totally over her, right?" she asked hopefully._

_I kissed her on the lips. "'Course. Besides, you're hotter." She giggled again. I wanted to strangle her to get her to stop giggling. I guess I wouldn't be winning a Best Boyfriend Ever award anytime soon. I forced a smile._

_Lissa hugged me tighter. Damn, if her grip got any tighter, I'd be dead. "So… do you want to come over to my house tonight? My parents aren't home. We can do whatever." The implication in her voice was obvious. Well, if I couldn't have Max, it couldn't hurt to have some fun with Lissa. It wasn't like I _didn't _like Lissa._

_"Sure, Lissa." And then the make-out session continued._

I remembered that everybody was talking about Max and her never-been-kissed status for weeks after that day because Lissa had told everyone she knew. But eventually, that blew over, and Max became a nobody. She was always in the background and no one ever noticed her. She never talked to anybody unless it was absolutely necessary. She seemed to like it that way. And I had practically forgotten about her. The girl who was once my best friend. I told myself I was over her and that time I had tried to kiss her was a mistake. I told myself that she wasn't good enough for me. That I had so many girls who threw themselves at me and didn't need Max. Girls were just toys, and screw anyone who's going to call me a sexist pig for thinking that. I had always believed those things ever since freshman year.

Until now.

**AN: That was a long chapter. For me, anyway. See? I promised a long chapter and I gave you a long chapter! I'm so dang awesome. I'm sorry if this chapter sucked. I was cramming for an algebra test as I wrote it. Ugh. I can't wait until Fang stops being a jerk. This is hard for me to write. Because Fang totally isn't a jerk. I'm sorry if you think Fang is OOC. But remember, he lost his memory. He'll go back to being the Fang we know and love (er, some of us) soon. Well, maybe not **_**soon. **_**Eventually. R & R! I have a plate of virtual cookies for anyone who reviews. Please?**

**Me: Bob, you need a shower. **

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: Urgh.**

**Me: I'll take that as a yes. *tries to shove Bob in shower***

**Bob: Urgh! Urgh! Urgh!**

**I'm trying to teach Bob English. It's not working. He can only moan and make weird sounds. Stupid zombie genes. I might not be able to update tomorrow because of the torture known as school and the worse torture known as homework. **


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: The words "emo" and "elmo" have only a one letter difference between them. I was talking to my friend on gmail and tried to say, "Fang is emo", but I accidently added an "l" so I had written "Fang is elmo". Then I started laughing because I tried to imagine Fang singing the elmo song. *shudder* Fang would totally look gay if he did that. I loved writing this chapter because there's a Cassandra POV. Many of you have been wondering what role Cassandra plays in this story. You'll find out in this chapter. YAYZ. **

Max POV

Person I most wanted to kill: Nick

Person I most wanted to talk to: Nick

Stupid messed-up feelings! Why couldn't being a teenager be simple?

I walked out of World History quickly, trying to avoid everyone—not a hard task.

"Max! Wait!" I heard unfamiliar footsteps behind me. I groaned. It was a girl, so it couldn't be Nick. I was kind of disappointed, but couldn't explain why.

I turned around and saw Cassandra trying to catch up to me. Her limp black hair partially covered her green eyes. She had glasses and braces. The classic nerd. She was wearing shapeless jeans and an oversized sweatshirt. Her hair and face were oily, and she had some acne on her forehead. She was as pale as a vampire, but nowhere near as beautiful. She was scowling, and I could tell she wasn't the type of person to care what people thought about her. Just like me. I turned around, waiting for Cassandra to catch up.

"What do you want?" I didn't even bother to try to keep the annoyance out of my voice. She didn't have to thank me. I was perfectly happy that I had gotten an excuse to punch Lissa. I laughed evilly to myself, replaying the scene in my head. I wasn't going to let anyone forget about it anytime soon.

Cassandra stood in front of me, her arms crossed over her chest. She was looking at me like she was trying to decipher me. I raised my eyebrows waiting for her to say something. After a few moments of her just staring at me, my patience was thinning. Let's just say patience is _not_ one of my virtues.

"He loves you," she stated matter-of-factly, not breaking eye contact with me. She said it like she knew everything. So she _did talk. _Huh.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked her. _Who_ was she talking about? Because she couldn't be talking about—

"Nick." She rolled her eyes as though that was totally obvious. That it should have been obvious to _me_. "I saw the way he was looking at you."

"What the fuck?" My jaw fell open. This girl was messing with me. She had to me. Nick? Loving me? He was the most popular guy in school. I was practically nonexistent. And we hated each other with a fiery passion.

Cassandra smirked. "Isn't it obvious?" She didn't seem to care whether I believed her or not, it seemed like she had just told me to unsettle me. "He's a bastard, though."

"Nick and I don't feel anything for each other. Nothing. Nada." I glared at her, daring her to press on.

"You're both so damn blind! I doubt he realizes it." But I'll make sure he will, soon. I'll _make _him realize he loves you," she said with a confident smile. Why was she taking so much interest in Nick and me? She didn't know us. Was she one of those crazy people who should be locked up in a mental institution? He didn't even _like _me, much less _love _me. And he would never love me, one of the only non-sluts at this hellhole of a school, and I didn't throw myself at him. It was pretty obvious that I would never date that bastardly asshole of an excuse for a person.

"Well, you can take your crazy theories and get the hell away," I said slowly, restraining myself from punching her. I would already be in enough trouble because of Lissa's nose. Whatever. Her daddy could always pay for another nose job. Too bad he couldn't pay to fix her ruined pride.

Cassandra smirked again. "And I think—I know—that you love him too." With that, she turned on her sneaker-clad heel and turned away, walking off, leaving me standing there with my mouth hanging open. On the bright side, I was sure I was doing a very impressive imitation of a goldfish. Oh, freaking joy.

Cassandra POV (after School)

Life sucks when you're a witch forced to do actual _good deeds_ and not contribute to the destruction of life as humans knew it. And believe it or not, a good little girl like _me_ had been like that once. Until my parents had found out what my friends and I had planned to do with humans. We were just having some _fun. _Enslaving them and messing with them using magic wasn't a _bad_ thing. Not in my opinion at least. But let's just say my parents weren't too happy when they found out. Now they were determined to "reform" me. They had punished me by threatening to take away my powers if I didn't do a good deed to "repent for all the bad things I'd done". When I say magic, I didn't mean the abracadabra, pull-the-freaking-white-bunny-out-of-the-top-hat crap that so-called magicians tried to pull on their naïve audience. I mean actual magic. Like Harry Potter without the ugly robes. Heck, I even had a magical flying broom in my closet. My magic could heal wounds, kill people, injure them mentally and physically beyond repair, create the illusion of love, change appearances… I could do a lot more, but I wasn't about to give away more witch secrets.

Nick was a bastard, a total asshole who deserved a punishment of some sort. That could count as a good deed, right? Ridding the world of a sexist jackass? But I could tell Max and Nick belonged together. I saw the way he had been looking at her with love and affection in his eyes. And I saw how Max had to look away from his eyes to conceal the feelings she had for him. And it would be hilarious when Nick ditched that slut Lissa for Max. I paced around my room, deep in thought. I wished my magic was developed enough to read minds. Then I could see what Nick and Max were thinking and find a way to get them together. All I really knew about them is that they used to be best friends but their friendship had fallen apart freshman year. I found this out from listening to people gossip. Who knew gossip could be useful for something?

I glanced at my reflection in the mirror. My ugly magical disguise I wore in school came off here in the privacy of my room. I contemplated my true appearance in the ornate mirror. My shiny black hair fell to my waist. My long bangs fell over my eyes messily, but in a totally deliberate way. My light green eyes had stopped many guys in their tracks just to stare at me. I had full lips that could smile seductively when I wanted to flirt. I had the body that many girls wanted. Thin, but not too thin, hourglass figure, and long legs. In other words, I was beautiful. I wasn't bragging. It was the honest truth. Those inferior humans at school wouldn't make fun of me if they saw the real me. But the ugly disguise was necessary. I had to blend in.

I took a long brush and began brushing my long dark hair. Appearances were what so many people cared about. Suddenly, I stopped brushing and my hand tightened its grip on the brush. The perfect idea had just come to me.

I got up and began gathering the ingredients I would need for my potion. I smiled wickedly. This would be majorly hilarious. This particular spell had been done by many matchmaking witches in the past. It worked almost every single time. I tried not to think about the times it hadn't worked. I would _make_ it work.

I was a freaking genius. And maybe my life didn't suck so much after all. Things were definitely about to get… beastly.

**AN: R & R? I don't know if I should put the rest of the flock in the story. They don't really fit in with what I have planned, but if you really want them in here, I'm sure I could get them in. In fact, I'm pretty sure I can get Iggy in. So review or PM and tell me if you want the flock in this story or not.**

**Cassandra: Review and maybe I won't use magic and kill you all. ****Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha.**

**Me: Um, yeah. Death threats will convince them to review. I hope.**

**Please review?**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: I know I'm such I'm such a bad person because I haven't updated for 3 days. But I've been busy with school and other stuff. Please don't kill me or come after me with sporks. I'm in such a good mood! The plot starts… next chapter. Well, the plot **_**has**_** started already, but nothing really important has happened. This chapter is kind of boring. But I had to write it because it contains an important-ish flashback. So… One of my reviewers Kira Cassie has asked for longer chapters. I'll **_**try, **_**but I'm pretty busy with school and stuff so it's hard to update **_**at all. **_**Most of you seem to want the flock, so… I'll put most, if not all, of the flock in this story. I have no ideas for a funny A/N. Nothing. I'm just really hungry right now. *goes to raid the refrigerator for chocolate-chip cookies*. OMFG, SUGAR! I'M ALL BETTER NOW. Warning: Slight cussing in this chapter, no f-word though. **

Fang/Nick POV

I should have known Lissa meant it when she said she would get revenge. Lissa's "brilliant" idea involved vandalism, and because vandalism is so dang "brilliant", Lissa had to drag Sam and me into it too. We had broken into the school at night. As if we didn't already have enough of this place during the day.

"Why are we messing with Cassandra's locker when you're mad at _Max?_" I asked out of boredom. Lissa had bottles of spray paint she had bought at Wal-Mart that day at her feet and was rubbing her hands together evilly like someone who wanted to take over the world. She was spray painting Cassandra's locker with insults. The paint she bought was the kind that wouldn't come off easily.

"If we get Cassandra, Max will try to get revenge. Then we'll do something to her." Lissa looked like she was about to start laughing evilly, I thought of Hitler rubbing his hands together and yelling, "Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha." I tried to imagine Hitler's creepy mustache on Lissa's face. Let's just say that it wasn't a pretty image. Lissa was in the act of spray painting the word "slut" onto Cassandra's locker in really big letters so they could be seen from across the hallway.

I got out a black Sharpie and helped Lissa. I wrote, "Why don't you get your fat ass back where you freaking came from?" I snickered, not feeling guilty at all. Whatever compelled me to try and talk to Max earlier was gone. Or maybe I was just doing this in an attempt to forget it.

"What if we get caught?" Sam put down his bottle of spray paint and put his hands in his pockets nervously. Even though he tried to act like breaking the law was no big deal, everyone knew he was nervous about it.

I smirked at him cockily. "Scared?' I taunted.

He sighed, accepting the fact that his friends were crazy criminals who would probably end up in jail one day and he might as well join the criminal funfest. "Whatever. But if we get found out, I was never here." He shook the spray paint bottle, opened it, and sprayed the words, "Fat bitch" onto Cassandra's locker.

After 15 minutes, Sam, Lissa, and I stepped back to view our handiwork. It was beautiful. But then, I guess a dead corpse would be beautiful to the person who killed it. Revenge is sweet. There were insults and profanity scribbled in bright colors that popped out against the dull black of the locker.

"Max and Cassandra are going to freaking _regret_ what they did." Lissa looked like she was in her happy place, planning Max's death. I knew it wouldn't make a difference if I pointed out that Cassandra hadn't really done anything. Max had stood up for her; therefore, she was Lissa's enemy.

Sam looked nervous again. "Let's get out of here," he said. I nodded. I tried to ignore the fact that Lissa would make me do something to Max to get revenge eventually. I didn't know if I could do that. Damn it! Those _feelings_ were back.

"I can't believe you two talked me into this. We broke into the school and vandalized school property. Two freaking crimes!" Sam said, but it seemed like he was joking.

Cassandra POV (Next Day)

I walked to school and saw the things written on my locker. Was I shocked? No. I expected Lissa to talk her friends into doing something like this. Everybody who saw pointed and laughed at me. Some had the decency to look away or just whisper, hoping that I wouldn't be able to hear. I acted upset, but I wasn't. Far from it. Instead, Nick's little stunt made me decide when I would enact my plan. Life as Nick knew it would end tonight.

Max POV

What the hell was wrong with him? How could he do this to someone who had never done anything to him? He had never been like this _before_. Cassandra acted like she was upset, but I could tell she didn't really care. She got her books to and from her locker like she usually did. Maybe someone had done this to her back at her old school. Nobody had suspected it had been Sam, Lissa, and Nick who had written those things on Cassandra's locker. They thought they were too good for that. But _I _knew. I saw the satisfied smirk on Nick's face when he had seen Cassandra this morning. I had seen him whisper to Lissa and snickering afterward. I knew he knew I knew. He had known me well enough to know when I knew he did something he shouldn't have. I wished with all my heart he would drown at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. So when he cried for his mommy in the last few seconds before he died (I wish), his tears would be lost in the immense body of water that surrounded him. I wish Cassandra would stand up to him and his sorry excuses for friends, but Cassandra never did anything about them.

I walked through my classes in a daze, not really paying attention to anything. At lunch, I saw Nick kiss Lissa and felt a pang of jealousy. What was freaking wrong with me? I wish I could bottle up all of my feelings and burn them. Are feelings flammable? Well, if they weren't, I would _make_ them flammable. Nick and Lissa were swapping spit again, and I couldn't help but remember how Nick had looked right before he was about to kiss me the day that began the end of our friendship. It had been the summer of high school, the day before I left for Europe with my family.

Flashback

_Nick and I were in my room, sitting on the bed facing each other with a comfortable silence surrounding us. With any other guy, I would have been embarrassed about him being in on my bed, but I had been best friends with Nick since the freaking 1st grade. My suitcase was packed and my room was a total mess. I had the volume on my iPod turned up loud and it was on shuffle. It was playing Trouble by Nevershoutnever._

_I saw Nick tense up. "What? You don't like my choice in music?" I teased._

_"No." One-word answers were so typical of Nick. He was more into rock, emo, and punk music. He always wore black and I always teased him about being emo. Whenever I did that, he would always pretend to cut himself and enjoy it. What a comedian. _

_"This summer will be… fun. I guess," I said, just to break the silence. Nick didn't say, and we just sat there for a while, content not to say anything. He looked thoughtful and glanced at me occasionally. I ignored Nick and just listened to my iPod. But Nick kept shooting my glances, his dark bangs falling over his eyes. It was like he was trying to work up the courage to do something. But I could be wrong. Finally, after five minutes of Nick looking at me nervously and me ignoring him, I was ready to slap him to Hades. Keeping calm had never been my strong suit. Another one of my _minor_ flaws. _

_"What do you want, Nick?" I sighed and poked him in the stomach. That was his weakness. The chink in his almost impenetrable armor. _

_"Nothing," he mumbled, for once not trying to kill me for poking him. He looked down and I could see him almost blushing. This had to be a first. _

_"Is the emotionless Nick _blushing?" _I laughed and nudged him with my shoulder lightly. "Seriously. I can tell something's up."_

_He looked down again, embarrassed. He mumbled something incoherent. I punched him in the shoulder. Hard. And if I may say so myself, I could make grown men cry for their mommies by punching them if I wanted to. I just _choose_ not to._

_But Nick was barely affected. Figures. He suddenly looked me in the eyes. "I'll miss you," he said softly, like he was hoping that I wouldn't hear, like he was embarrassed. _

_"Woah. Is the emotionless Nick showing actual _emotion? _The world must be ending!" I teased._

_Nick looked annoyed. "I'm not completely emotionless, Max." _

_I cracked up. "No, you're just freaking EMO." I laughed, and Nick rolled his eyes. He reached out a hand to touch mine gently. I felt tingles where our skin made contact. I had felt… something every time I had touched Nick for these past few weeks. I didn't know what it meant, but I didn't like it one bit. Yet, somehow, I felt like I couldn't pull my hand away. Nick gently tilted my chin up with his warm, calloused hand. I felt those damn tingles again, and felt an urge to slap his hand away just to stop feeling this. This was torture. He kept his hand on my chin for a few more moments. His hand was warm where it touched my skin, and after a while it began to feel almost pleasant. He began stroking my cheek softly. My body felt out of my control as I leaned toward him. His lips seemed to be pulled to mine by an uncontrollable, invisible force. I couldn't move from where I was sitting. His lips were only an inch from mine. His warm breath caressed my cheek. Then he closed the distance between us and brushed his lips against mine softly. We weren't really kissing. It was just a brush of our lips…_

_That was when I regained my common sense. I was almost kissing my freaking best friend! Why did Nick have to start this? This would make this awkward between us, and I didn't want that. This would mean the end of our friendship, I just knew it. My arms came up automatically to push him away, not even considering that I was making a mistake. That maybe this kiss was meant to be. _

_Nick looked at me with dark anger and hurt in his eyes. But then he became emotionless again, and his expression was undecipherable. His eyes betrayed nothing._

_"I—uh." I had no idea what I was supposed to say in this situation. I looked anywhere but at Nick; the window, my iPod, the stuffed bunny that I had always gone to bed with as a little kid…_

_I couldn't help but glance at Nick. There was a hint of a blush on his cheeks and he was staring at his feet. "I gotta go," he mumbled almost incoherently. With that, he dashed out of my room. I heard the front door slam. And there I sat for the next few hours—on my bed, trying to sort through my muddled thoughts, trying to figure out how I felt about him. _

And I was right. That day had been the beginning of the end of our friendship.

**AN: I'm sorry if that chapter seems rushed. It **_**was**_** rushed. REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW. I have Stacy's Mom by Fountains of Wayne stuck in my head. *starts slapping forehead* GET OUT OF MY HEAD! Review and maybe it will get out of my head!**

**Cassandra: She loves reviews.**

**Me: YEP. I love reviews almost as much as I love Fang and cookies. *eats cookie***

**Cassandra: She's such a cookie hogger.**

**Me: *hits Cassandra in the head* MY COOKIES!**

**Cassandra: See what I mean? She won't share.**

**Me: I **_**do **_**share. Come here, Bob. *gives Bob cookie* **

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: *eats cookie* Urgh.**

**Cassandra: You share with Bob and not me?**

**Me: Bob is nicer than you. *continues to munch on cookie***

**Cassandra: Give me a cookie or I'll use my magic to turn you into a frog!**

**Me: Nope. I'm immune to your magic. I created you, remember?**

**Cassandra: Crap.**

**Me: Review? If you watched the Lightning Thief movie and hated it (like me), you should consider doing UNDERLANDERfromtheOVERLANDER's Anti-Columbus Day's writing contest where you get to kill off the director of the Lightning Thief! Details: **

everybody who knows Maximum Ride knows anti-hardwicke day, right? Well, Now theres another one. Anti- Colombus day. The director of The Lighning Thief movie is Chris Colombus. I went to see the midnight premier (on a school nigh, I might add, and Valerie, if u read this, no messages complaining about how much I rant on this subject) and It SUCKED! okay, it was a good movie, but it changed from the book to much. Tell everyone who has read TLT to write a fanfic about killing the director of the movie. here are the requirements.

1) must be at least 1,500 words. not including authors notes, no repeating words over and over in order to meet the deadline.

2) Must include at least 5 characters from the book.

3) someone must, at some point, say the words bacon, green, riptide, seaweed, _di imortales,_ and the name of at least 1 god or goddess

4) someone must say the quote "the rainbow in your mind takes you where?"

5) only 2 original characters can be OOC

6) must contain at least 1 OC

7) Chris Colombus must DIE!

8) all characters physicly in the story must have a line

9) all entries must be submitted by April 30th.

cleaverness is rewarded. be funny. I will pick a winner based on these guidelines.

all entrants must send me a message with their screen name and story name, Good luck.

~UNDERLANDERfromtheOVERLAND~

**(PM her if you have any questions.)**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: It's official. The song Love Drunk by Boys Like Girls is a virus. Somebody always starts singing it or humming it because it's stuck in their head. Then someone else hears it and starts humming it or singing it. Then eventually, everyone gets it stuck in their heads. That song is going to take over the world! I'm not saying I don't love it, because I DO! All your reviews were fnicking fantastic. I honestly never expected to have this many people read my story, much less like it. And whenever I get reviews, I want to eat cookies. And whenever I eat cookies, I want to update. And updates lead to reviews, which lead to more cookies. It's a vicious cycle. So REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW if you want me to update faster. I might not be able to update until Friday or Saturday though because of school. :'( This chapter is kind of short, but it's VERY important.**

**Disclaimer: I'm putting in a disclaimer because I feel like it. I thought of a little poem! I think it's pure genius.**

**Roses are red**

**Violets are blue**

**I don't own MR**

**But neither do you **

**(unless you're James Patterson, and if that was true, that would be so damn awesome! James Patterson reading my fanfiction…)**

Cassandra POV

I was holding the bottle under the table, overly paranoid even though the plastic water bottle that held the potion was completely inconspicuous. Heck, the whole _potion_ was completely inconspicuous. It was clear and looked exactly like water. It would taste exactly like water, too. Basically, the plan was completely foolproof. Nick wouldn't notice anything strange. As long as Nick and Max did what people would expect them to do when put in this situation, my parents would get off my back about doing "good deeds". Of course, a love potion would have been easier, but where's the fun in that?

I made my way to the bathroom, careful to avoid the other students. Everybody avoided me like the plague, and I smiled. Maybe I was exuding witchy vibes that kept them away. I opened the door of the bathroom, and walked in, keeping my eyes down. Luckily, there was nobody else in there. That would completely ruin my plan. I went into a stall and took out a container with glittery-looking dust in it out of my bag. I opened the container carefully, not spilling anything. I had a limited supply left. I sprinkled some dust onto me and waited exactly 10 seconds. Then, I opened the stall door and stepped in front of the mirror. I saw nothing but the stall doors reflected in the mirror. Good. Perfect. I had turned invisible. Not as epically awesome as Harry Potter's Invisibility Cloak, but at least it was glittery. And who doesn't love glitter? I smiled an invisible smile and walked out of the bathroom. I hoped nobody would notice a bathroom door opening mysteriously without a force acting on it. I stepped back into the loud cacophony of the cafeteria. Nobody had noticed. Typical humans. Always so self-absorbed.

I walked over to Nick's table in the center of the cafeteria, careful not to make too much noise or bump into anybody. I hadn't needed to bother. The self-absorbed humans didn't notice a thing. They wouldn't notice if some wolf-human-bird hybrids suddenly flew in and started killing everyone. Not that those things exist, of course.

Nick's table was the rowdiest in the whole lunchroom. There was loud laughter coming from it and everyone radiated an air of importance that made everybody think that they were perfect, beautiful, and popular. It made everyone practically worship them. The only person who seemed immune to it was Max, who was sitting across the cafeteria from Nick's table. She had her head stuck in an Alex Rider book while shoveling the cafeteria's mystery meat in her mouth.

Suddenly, I head cheering coming from Nick's table. I turned away from Max and saw something that totally should _not_ be done in a lunchroom. Lissa and Nick were playing tonsil hockey and were practically slobbering over each other. Lissa was pushing Nick against the table and was straddling his hips. Lissa was _this_ close to being completely on top of him. Lissa was messing with Nick's hair with one hand. Nick's hands were… exploring all over Lissa. Unfortunately, no teachers were there to put an end to this extreme form of PDA. I wanted to slap both of them and tell them to get a room, but I had to remind myself that I was invisible and on a mission.

I walked up to Nick's table, averting my eyes from the scene that should not be publicized in front of me. Everybody was watching Lissa and Nick intently to see how far they would really go, so my mission was a total piece of cake. A large, delicious, chocolatey piece of cake. While everyone was occupied, I swapped Nick's water bottle with regular water in it with my potion, which looked exactly the same. Of course, they didn't notice. The plan _had_ been foolproof. I hoped a teacher would notice Lissa and Nick soon. Because some people might actually want to eat without throwing up in a cafeteria. But maybe that was just my opinion. Maybe cafeterias _weren't_ made for eating after all and existed for the sole purpose of letting couples make out publicly.

I walked to a table at a corner of the cafeteria. Nobody sat there other than me. I looked back and Nick's table. Fortunately, Lissa and Nick had taken a break from their make-out session and Nick was holding his bottle of water and was getting ready to drink. He brought it up to his mouth and downed it in one big gulp. I sighed. My work was done. Now all I really had to do was sit back and wait.

Fang/Nick POV 11:00 P.M.

I was annoyed. Extremely annoyed. Cassandra had barely seemed upset when she came to school and saw her locker. In fact, I could tell that she had to _act_ upset. What was the point of humiliating people if they didn't care? I looked around my room. Even though I had changed so much in two years, my room had hardly changed at all. Everything was still black. Black, black, and more black. If anybody who didn't know me looked in, they would probably ask where my razors were because my room looked like it belonged to an emo person. Lissa hated coming in here. She claimed that the color depressed her. I didn't want to change the room just to make Lissa happy, though.

Suddenly, my stomach growled. Damn it. It seemed like I got hungry more often these days, like normal-sized meals weren't enough to keep me full. I got up from my bed slowly, careful not to make loud noises and wake up everyone in the house—they were already asleep. I opened my bedroom door and padded downstairs quietly and stealthily. Max had always used to tease me and say that I would make a good ninja.

When I got downstairs, I headed toward the kitchen. I opened the refrigerator and grabbed a leftover pizza slice from dinner. I finished it in three bites, but I was still hungry. My hand was on the refrigerator door, about to open it again, when the room started to spin. Well, it _seemed_ like it was spinning. My head hurt like hell and I had a sudden urge to sit down. My temples throbbed and I rubbed them with my fingers, trying to soothe the pain. Maybe I was sick. But I rarely ever got sick. People said that I was practically completely immune to sicknesses. But the debilitating headache made my head feel like it had been run over by a truck.

I struggled to make my way up the stairs, thinking that if I just lay down and listened to some music, this headache would pass. I opened my bedroom door quickly, not bothering to keep quiet this time. I glanced at the clock over my bed. 10 seconds to midnight. Midnight. The witching hour. Some people said that this was the time supernatural things occurred. Magic. Yeah, right. You'd have to be an idiot to believe any of that crap. I saw the seconds tick down on the clock. _5…4…3…2…1_

Midnight. I breathed a sigh of relief. My headache was gone now. It seemed like a distant memory, maybe I had imagined it. I started making my way over to my bed.

Suddenly, my skin started tingling. The tingles spread over my whole body. I felt _something_ happening to my body. _Something_ I couldn't name. It was like my cells were rearranging. The pain was excruciating. It made me fall to the floor, gasping. My headache came back in full force; it hurt worse than before, if that was possible. Like people were hitting my head with bricks repeatedly. And damn, those were some hard bricks. My stomach felt queasy, like I was about to throw up. I lay my head down on the floor, hoping the feeling would pass soon. I glanced in the mirror on my bedside table…

And almost fainted like a girl. I had _changed_. Not mentally like I had the summer before high school, but _physically. _And the change wasn't for the better. It was for the worse. Definitely for the worse. I could barely look at myself in the mirror without wanting to run away, never to look back. My flat stomach had gotten bigger, making me fat. My face was completely covered with terrorizing blotches of acne. My eyebrows had thickened and enlarged into a big, hairy unibrow. My face was shiny with oil and there were little growths of prickly black hair spread over it. My hair and skin were also oily and looked like they hadn't been clean for a while. There were red splotches all over my arms, and hair had grown over my arms and legs. The hair didn't cover them completely, but there was definitely a plethora of it. I was as ugly as hell. I looked like a freak.

No, I _was_ a freak.

**AN: Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to everyone who gave me suggestions on what Fang should look like. I'm sorry if I couldn't use your idea. And MAJOR thanks to my friend Arunika, who helped me write the description of Fang because I couldn't go through with it. It was hard making him ugly. And I'd also like to thank my algebra teacher, Mr. Simmons, for never paying attention to what people do in his class as long as it **_**looks**_** like we're taking notes, enabling me to write the description. Review, review, REVIEW! Please? I'm begging you. If you're a FANGirl and you're mad because Fang turned ugly, PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! And remember that I'm as much of a Fanggirl as you are and that FANGirls need to stick together and NOT KILL EACH OTHER. **

**Cassandra: You make me sick with all this pleading. Don't you have any pride?**

**Me: Apparently not. I'm seriously begging, people!**

**Bob: Urgh.**

**(Non-Ugly Fang randomly appears)**

**Me: OMFG! It's Fang! (hugs Fang)**

**Fang: Why me?**

**Me: (starts singing) I used to be love drunk; But now I'm hungover; Love is forever; But now it's over…**

**Cassandra: Stop singing! It's getting stuck in my head.**

**Me: See? I told you it was a virus. A **_**good**_** virus. **

**Review? **


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Hiya! I think I failed my algebra quiz! Joyousness! Fan-fnicking-tastic! I could burst from the joy! I blew off studying for the quiz for… fanfiction. Some people are mad at me because of the last chapter. People are wondering how this will help things. Well, in my first chapter, I said that this story will have elements of Beauty and the Beast in it. And that had a happy ending, so please don't kill me. OMG, PANDORA (internet radio) KEEPS PLAYING BOYS LIKE GIRLS AND THE ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS. Those are two of my favorite bands, but it gets old after a while. It's playing Up Against the Wall by Boys Like Girls now… it just finished playing 11:11 P.M by The All-American Rejects. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Warning: LOTS of cussing in this chapter, so skip over the cuss words if you're going to be offended. I don't know how you would skip over them, though.**

**Disclaimer: I-hay o-day ot-nay own-hay aximum-May ide-Ray (that was in pig latin, if you haven't figured that out)**

Fang/Nick POV

I stared at myself in the mirror, willing myself to believe that this wasn't happening to me. This was impossible. I couldn't just change so much in just a few minutes. These things only happened in books or messed up fanfictions.

"You're lucky you resemble a human at all. Well, kinda. A very ugly human." A voice came from behind me. I turned around. A beautiful girl with dark, waist-length hair was standing in the hallway. She had large light green eyes with gold and violet flecks in them. Her eyes entranced and attracted me like bugs to a light. Before my transformation, I would've tried to flirt with her, just to see if I could get her, but now, with _my_ looks…

"You're completely and totally freaked out, aren't you?" the girl laughed, a beautiful, musical sound. She put her hand on her hip and just looked at me. "You're wondering who I am," she said it with conviction, like she was sure of it.

I was sure that I had that oh-so-dang-attractive-open-mouthed look on my face. Who _was_ this girl? And how had she gotten in here? And why the hell did she look so beautiful? It was almost inhuman. "Who are you?" I forced out, trying to keep myself from stuttering and my voice from breaking—I was that freaked out. I found that I couldn't tear my eyes from her beautiful ones. They were so captivating, so hypnotizing…

The girl threw back her head and laughed again. She muttered some unintelligible words under her breath. I strained to figure out what she was saying, but the words seemed to be in a different language or something. Suddenly, her body started morphing at an alarming rate. Her hair became shorter and limper. Her amazing green eyes got duller. Her delicious curves flattened out, and I could _see_ her growing fat on her skinny body. After a few moments, she stopped changing. I found myself staring at a familiar face.

"Cassandra?" I was shocked. No, "shocked" didn't cover it. It was more like "about to run around screaming like an idiot". "D-did you just change?" What was going on? Did Cassandra have something to do with my appearance? And how? This was as impossible as…well…as a mind-reading blonde little girl taking over the whole freaking world. And how the fuck had she gotten here in the first place? My front floor was locked… at least, I thought it was. Maybe all that crap about magic wasn't crap after all. NO! I didn't believe in magic. There was no such thing as magic.

"What. The. Fuck?" I enunciated each word clearly, but softly. I couldn't believe this was happening to me. What had I done to deserve whatever this was? Maybe this was all some bad nightmare and when I woke up, I would change back to my normal self. Yeah, that was it. This was just a bad dream. And maybe the person in my room_ wasn't_ Cassandra after all. The pretty girl who had changed into Cassandra had _definitely_ not been Cassandra. Or was she? Crap! Now I had a headache again, but this time, it was self-induced, the cause of thinking in circles.

"Hi, Nick. It's such a pretty night, isn't it?" Cassandra (let's just call her Cassandra for now) said. She muttered some words under her breath again and the ugly girl changed back to the pretty one from before. The change happened faster this time, more effortlessly. Like her body had gotten used to going through changes. "I know you're freaked out," Cassandra said with a smirk, "but all I'm asking is for you not to scream. If you do, there will be worse consequences that _that._" She gestured at my appearance carelessly, like it was really no big deal. So, there were worse consequences than _this? _What was worse than turning _ugly? _How was I supposed to explain this to my friends? I could just imagine the conversation…

Me: Hey, everybody! I turned into a freak overnight! It won't be socially acceptable to hang out with me anymore, but I'm sure we can get over that _minor_ fact.

Everybody Else: (screams and run away)

Me: Crap…

Yeah, that would turn out so well.

I nodded, letting Cassandra know that I wouldn't scream. I didn't trust myself to open my mouth. What the heck had happened to me? I touched a hand to my face. The normally smooth skin was still covered with bumps. Damn it. I resisted the urge to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't asleep and this was a nightmare. Somehow, I didn't think pinching myself would make me look good.

"Nick, you're an asshole and a sexist pig." I opened my mouth to protest, but she interrupted. "Look, everyone knows it, so don't even try to deny it."

"I wasn't about to deny it," I said indignantly, even though I was. She didn't need to know that.

Cassandra smirked, like she knew what I was really thinking. "You're funny," she giggled. "Nick, it's simple: you're an asshole, therefore, you need punishment. It's a really simple concept, actually. Even a brainless pig like you should get it," she snickered again.

"What the hell! _You_ did this? How?" my voice was rising above a whisper. I didn't want to wake up the rest of the house, but I wasn't really worried about _that _when I had bigger problems to worry about. For example, I WAS FUCKING UGLY!

"Nick, Nick, Nick," Cassandra shook her head pityingly, like she thought I should have already figured it out, "isn't it obvious?"

"What's supposedly so obvious?" I asked warily. I didn't want to make this girl mad. The next thing you know, she would give me wings or something.

Cassandra looked at me with those captivating eyes of hers. "I'm not human," she stated matter-of-factly. Three words: What. The. Fuck? If she wasn't human, what was she? Was she part tortoise or something?

"I think you know what I am. Your subconscious is just trying to deny it." She turned around, toward my door. I thought she was getting ready to leave, but she was just standing there, staring intently at my dresser, which was next to the door. She muttered a few more words and held her hand toward the dresser, her palm facing it. She narrowed her eyes in concentration. Suddenly, the dresser burst into flames.

"What the hell?" I screamed loudly, not caring about keeping quiet anymore. I rushed toward the dresser, but Cassandra blocked the way to it. I tried to push her out of the way, but she stood her ground. She was surprisingly strong for a girl.

"Shhhhhhh, Nick. Keep it down. I don't want your parents waking up or something." She looked at the door worriedly, expecting someone to come bursting in any moment.

"I don't freaking care! You're going to burn the whole damn house down!" I yelled, but it was slightly less loud this time. Cassandra was a freaking lunatic. How had she started a fire without even touching the dresser? Maybe she had set something up beforehand. But I had been in my room since school ended. Cassandra couldn't have gotten in.

Cassandra just rolled her eyes. She snapped her fingers, and the flames disappeared, like nothing had happened. I went over to the dresser, and Cassandra didn't stop me this time. I touched it, to make sure the dark, polished wood was really back to normal and that it wasn't just an illusion. I ran my hand over the smooth wood. It wasn't even warm from the fire. It was still exactly the same. And it was solid, not an illusion.

There was only one explanation for it. "Witch," I whispered softly, but with conviction. "You're a witch. That's how you changed yourself. That's how the dresser burst into flames without you touching it. That's how the flames just freaking _disappeared_. That's how you changed me." I paused, suddenly mad. "Why the fuck did you make me ugly?" I lunged at Cassandra, wanting to hurt her, to get revenge for what had happened.

She just stepped out of the way casually, like it was no big deal. "WHY DID YOU DO THIS? HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FACE EVERYONE NOW?" I yelled. I didn't try to attack her anymore. I just stood a few feet from her, glaring at her, wanting to strangle that pretty little neck.

Cassandra smirked. This girl really seemed to like smirking "The thing is, you're not a good person, Nick. And bad people deserve to be punished," she stated that in her stupid matter-of-fact way. I wanted to punch her or _something_, but I knew she really could do worse things to me.

"Haha, Cassandra. Very funny. But fun's over. Now change me back." I said hopefully.

Cassandra smiled wickedly. "You see, Nick. I can't really do that… you see, the spell that I used is-"

I interrupted her. "Don't tell me it's irreversible." My eyes widened. That possibility hadn't really hit me until now. What if I was stuck like this forever? Shit!

"Well… you're not stuck like this forever, but I can't change you back either. You have to change yourself back." I could tell she knew something I didn't from the way she was smiling.

"So there's spell or something, right? Something easy and simple?" I asked hopefully. I really, really hoped.

"Not exactly…" Cassandra trailed off, looking at me. For the first time, I could see a hint of uncertainty in her eyes. Just a small hint, but a hint nonetheless.

"What do I have to do? Please don't tell me I have to do the Macarena in public in my underwear or something as embarrassing." My sad attempt at a joke to lighten the mood fell flat.

"Um…well…you're not really going to like this." Cassandra looked down, seeming almost sorry about what she had done. But after a second, she brightened up again. "Which is why it's going to be so damn funny!" she said cheerfully. Something was wrong with this girl…

"Just fucking tell me already." If it was bad, I wanted to find out sooner rather than later.

"You have one year to find true love," she said with obvious pleasure in her voice. "Surely a guy who can get as many girls as you do can find true love in 12 months. In fact, I think you can do it in six." I stared at Cassandra, wide-eyed. Was she freaking serious? TRUE LOVE? This was the real world! Not some crappy romance novel.

"What?" I asked oh so intelligently.

"That's right. Your punishment is that you have to get a kiss from a girl who loves you in one year or you stay like this forever." Cassandra…was…a…bitch. There was no other word to describe her. Love was for books, not for real life. People like me didn't _fall in love. _

"How am I supposed to get a girl to kiss me when I look like a freak?" I yelled. This was hopeless. I might as well give up now and accept that I was going to stay like this forever. No sane girl would want to talk to me, much less kiss me. I was going to be… ugly.

"I'm sure you can figure it out! I'll enjoy watching you trying to get girls who will actually take you. And I'll enjoy it even more if you stay like this forever." Cassandra was… evil. "By midnight on September 3 of next year, you have to get a kiss from a girl who really, truly loves you. Or else…"

"Are you sure you can't just freaking change me back now? This is PRETTY MUCH IMPOSSIBLE." Maybe I could just pay a girl to kiss me or something…

Cassandra turned to go out my bedroom door. I sat down on my bed with my head in my hands, sensing a deep feeling of hopelessness and despair creeping up on me.

Cassandra turned around to look at me right before she walked through the doorway. "Oh, I almost forgot." She snapped her fingers and a rose and a mirror appeared next to me on the bed. The rose was a deep red, the color of blood. The mirror was one that had a handle you would hold in your hand, with a silver, elaborately decorated handle.

"What are these for?" I asked, fingering the design on the mirror's handle.

"The rose loses its petals as time passes. It's to help you keep track of time. The rose will lose all of its petals on September 3rd of next year. You'll figure out what the mirror does eventually." I just looked at her.

"So you're just leaving me here with nothing to help me get a girl other than a practically useless mirror and a rose?" I asked disbelievingly.

"Yep!" Cassandra turned around again, and with a snap of her fingers she disappeared, like she had never been here at all. The only evidence of the fact that she had been here was the mirror, the rose, and of course, my appearance. I looked at my refection in the mirror. It was still as ugly as the last time I had looked in a mirror. Girls would hate me. I was going to stay like this forever unless I could find a girl who was stupid enough to like me.

I was in deep shit.

**AN: So, do you hate me? Or do you love me? If you hate me, don't kill me… because I really don't want to die. So, "Nick" has one year to find true love… now do you people see how making him ugly would help me get more Fax in? The Fax is coming later. Actually, it might be coming next chapter. But most likely the one after that. It won't really be Fax. More like attempted Fax. You'll see what I mean soon enough.**

**Cassandra: Turn your iPod down! I'm trying to listen to My Chemical Romance over here. And the Nevershoutnever you're playing is ruining it!**

**Me: Well, I'm sorry… NOT. (starts singing; haha, I love to sing whatever song is stuck in my head) I'm in trouble; I'm an addict; I'm addicted to this girl…**

**Cassandra: SHUT UP! MCR IS AWESOMER THAN NEVERSHOUTNEVER!**

**Me: Heh, you're probably right, it's just fun to annoy you.**

**Cassandra: Ugh!**

**Hahahaha! Pandora is still playing mostly Boys like Girls and AAR. Now it's playing Drive Away by The All-American Rejects. Not their best song, but I still like it. So, will Pandora ever stop playing mostly Boys Like Girls and AAR? Will Fang ever find his one true love? Who is his true love? How will people react to his ugliness? Will Max be in the next chapter? When will the FAXness start? Will Fang get slapped by multiple girls? Will Lissa die in this fic? Will Edward Cullen hook up with Iggy anytime soon? Will I ever stop asking questions that you can't answer? All your questions will be answered eventually if you REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! Oooooooo, I thought of a poem:**

**I really should be studying**

**But really I'm just writing**

**Please REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**

**Or I will surely hurt you**

**Well, it sort of rhymes… sort of. Review?**


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: Hiya, peeps! I find out my grade on that algebra quiz I think I failed tomorrow. Oh, joy. I think I should have mentioned in the story that Cassandra and Jeb are NOT working together, and Cassandra doesn't know about their past. I just wanted to clarify that. And Pandora stopped playing AAR and BLG! It it's playing a bunch of Relient K and Blink 182, though it's taking a break and playing Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol now. Great song! I wonder what I'll do to Lissa in this fic. I hate her so much! Oh, crap it's playing MORE Blink 182. All the Small Things. This whole chapter is free-handed, so there are going to be things that happen that I didn't really intend to happen. Sorry about the shortness of the chapter. I promise there will be a longer chapter soon. Well, soon could mean a week… but I'll try to update on Thursday. I know I won't be able to update on Friday because I'm going on an out-of-town field trip to San Antonio. I'm half excited and half annoyed at the same time. On the bright side, we don't have to stay in class. On the bad side, I have to wake up at 5 in the freaking morning! And I have to be stuck on a bus for more than three hours, not including the return trip. And my group on the field trip sucks! (If you're in my group and you're offended, I'm sorry. And anyway, if you're reading this, you're probably one of those people I don't HATE in my group)**

**Disclaimer: I'm not James Patterson and I don't own Maximum Ride! If I was James Patterson, I wouldn't be on FanFiction. I would be writing the 7th Maximum Ride book. If there is going to be one…**

Max POV (Next Day: Saturday)

When I had woken up that morning, there was a stranger in my house. It was a man with graying brown hair. He was sitting at the kitchen table, across from my mom, Dr. Martinez. Their heads were bent towards each other, and they were deep in conversation. Whatever they were talking about must have been important because they didn't notice when I opened the front door and slipped through, heading towards the stairs to my room, wanting to avoid my mom and the stranger. My mom was the best mom ever, but she always tried to get me to be friendlier toward other people and be more _sociable. _I had made it clear that I really wasn't a people person, but Mom would probably want to introduce me to the man anyway.

I placed my foot on the first step of the staircase, hoping to sneak up quietly. But because I have all the freaking luck in the world, the stairs just _happened_ to creak as I climbed up. I swear, sometimes I thought the world wanted me to fail epically at everything I did.

The man and Mom heard the noise and they turned toward me. I paused like a deer caught in a car's headlights.

"Oh, hi, Max. Were you just going up to your room? Go ahead, I'll call you when dinner's ready." My mom smiled when she said this, but I could tell that it was a fake smile. Was she hiding something? If so, what? And why didn't she introduce me to the guy? Was he someone who she didn't want me to know about?

"Um, sure." I looked pointedly at the stranger. Somehow, he looked familiar. But I was sure I had never met him before, so that was impossible. "Who are you?" I asked. My mom widened her eyes. Clearly, she had not expected me to be so straightforward. I guess she expected me to just not care about who this guy was? Well, too bad. I didn't follow people's expectations often.

The man looked at my mom, as if asking her if it was okay to answer my question. My mom nodded minutely; I could tell it wasn't a movement I was meant to see. My mom didn't want me to know that he had to consult her before telling me who he was. That just made me more suspicious. But then, everything about this man made me suspicious for some reason.

"I'm Jeb." He paused for a moment, like he didn't know what to say next. "Your mom knows me from work."

My mom nodded her head, willing me to believe the obvious lie. "That's right." She smiled an obviously fake smile at me, hoping I would be stupid enough to fall for it.

I decided to question her about Jeb later. She obviously didn't know him from work. There was another reason he was here. But I didn't want to question her about it now, when I just wanted to go up to my room, listen to my iPod and try to sort through my thoughts about what had happened this week.

I walked up the stairs and opened the door to my room. I took my iPod out and put it on shuffle. It started playing Story of a Girl by Nine Days. After a while, I just couldn't stand listening to music anymore. Usually music helped me think, but I needed silence right now. I took my earbuds off and lay down on my bed, trying to think. Nick had tried to be nice to me the day before yesterday, but yesterday, he had gone back to the way he usually was. Arrogant and cruel. I wish he would change back to the way he was in middle school. Why did he have to ruin our friendship that day? I knew it was partly my fault, for rejecting him, but I hadn't wanted anything to complicate our friendship. That wasn't wrong, right?

After a few minutes of just lying on my bed, thinking, I realized that the voices of Jeb and Mom downstairs had grown louder. I didn't think I was supposed to hear what they were saying, so I think they didn't mean to talk so loudly. It seemed like they had forgotten that I was in the house at all. By the tone of their voices, I think they were arguing. I could hear snatches of their conversation.

"…have to tell her soon…" That was my mom's voice.

"…tracking her, following her movements…" I could only hear part of Jeb's reply.

"…hasn't talked to him for years. This is wrong, Jeb." Again, I could only hear part of what my mom said.

"Soon." Jeb replied with just that one word.

"But—" my mom started to argue, but Jeb interrupted her.

"Shhh, Valencia. She's just upstairs. She can probably hear us." Damn it. Stupid Jeb and his common sense. I wanted to know what they were talking about. More importantly, _who_ were they talking about? From the way they were trying to hide it from me, I would guess that they were talking about me. But that was impossible, right? Nobody was tracking me. That I knew of, anyway.

Their voices grew soft again, and suddenly, I just couldn't take not knowing what they were talking about anymore. I wasn't going to force whatever they were arguing about out of them because they probably wouldn't tell me anyway, but I didn't want to hear their soft talking downstairs and not be able to make out the words. I had always hated being out of the loop. I grabbed my iPod and opened my bedroom door. I ran down the stairs, not bothering to keep quiet. I purposely made my presence known to Jeb and Mom.

"Mom, I'm just going out for a run. I'll be back in time for dinner, okay?" I didn't wait for an answer as I shoved my feet into my sneakers on my way out the front door. I put my earbuds in my ears and began to run, letting my feet do the work and let my mind wander. I didn't have to _think_ about running. I just let my legs take me wherever they wanted to take me. Running always cleared my mind. Sometimes, if I ran fast enough, I could almost delude myself into thinking that I was flying.

Again, my iPod was on shuffle. It was playing You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift I had no clear idea of a destination. I just let my legs take over.

I thought about Nick, and how our friendship had deteriorated. That was what I thought about the most these days. But then, I started thinking about Cassandra. There was something _different _about the girl. She didn't seem to care about what Nick and his friends had done to her. And that wasn't the only strange thing about her. What she had said about Nick being in love with me was obviously a sign of craziness. I tried to put the fact that she had said that I love him too out of my mind. Because it couldn't be true. I knew my own mind better than she did, right? Great, now I sounded crazy. I was asking myself if I knew my own mind better than some person who I had only talked to once. If that's not a sign that I was going insane, I didn't know what was.

Suddenly, I looked around me. It took me a moment to recognize my surroundings. I hadn't noticed where I was running. Oh shit. This was _Nick's _neighborhood. I let my legs take me wherever they wanted me to go and they take me _here_? Bad, bad, legs. Shame on you, legs. I saw Nick's house at the end of the block. It was huge, practically a mansion. His parents were rich. He hadn't bragged about it back when we were still friends, but he openly flaunted it now. He was always having huge parties there, inviting girls over to spend the night, and stuff like that.

Before I really knew what I was doing, I had walked up to Nick's front door. Wait, why the hell was I doing this? I didn't want to talk to him. He didn't want to talk to me. So the best thing to do would be to just walk away slowly and forget all about Nick altogether. My hand paused over the doorbell, about to ring it. I realized how stupid this was. He would probably make fun of me and say that I had a crush on him or something. I began to back away from the door, but it opened before I could. Standing in the doorway was a boy. A very, VERY ugly boy. Under all of that acne on his face, he seemed about my age. Had had horrible, oily hair and skin and there was a bad smell coming off him. Had this boy ever heard of deodorant?

"Max," he said uncertainly. How the hell did he know my name? Was he some kind of stalker?

"Who are you?" I asked cautiously, backing away. I didn't want to be near a stalker. And the boy's smell naturally repelled anyone who got too close.

The boy looked desperate, like he didn't want me to leave. "Max, it's me. Nick."

**AN: My friends say I'm not normal. Am I normal? **

**Cassandra: You? Normal? No freaking way.**

**Me: Are you calling me weird?**

**Cassandra: Maybe…**

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: Urgh…**

**Me: Whatever, you can call me weird all you want as long as I get reviews. So, R & R?**


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: No long, rambling author's note this time. This will be short. I know I said I would try to update on last Thursday, but I didn't have time. I'll probably only be able to update this once a week from now on because of school plus I have two other stories to update. But Spring Break is next week, so I might be able to update more then. This chapter may be kind of weird. I wrote a lot of it on a school bus on a school field trip! While trying to copy my friend's assignment so I wouldn't have to do it myself. (For the record, assignments on school field trips that should be FUN and ENJOYABLE stink. Unless, of course, you just do everything on the bus on the way there.) So yeah…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. Duh.**

Max POV

My jaw dropped in shock. This… this _couldn't_ be Nick, right? He looked nothing like Nick. And that was the understatement of the century. But that didn't explain how he had gotten into Nick's house. Nick wouldn't let some random ugly person into his house, right? Unless he was insane. I _did_ have to question his sanity ever since he started dating that slut Lissa of all people.

"Max, you have to believe me, I'm telling the truth!" He reached out a hand toward me, as if to keep me from running away, but I took a step back. I wanted to run away screaming, but my feet didn't obey me.

"I don't know who you are, but I know you are definitely _not_ Nick. "Nick doesn't l-look," I paused. How would I put this tactfully? "You're just…" I trailed off, not wanting to be _too_ cruel.

He sighed, looking down at his feet. "I'm just ugly, aren't I?' I could almost see a blush on his cheeks. "I'm a freak," he mumbled. He was right—he _was_ a freak, but I didn't want to say that to his face.

Suddenly, he looked up at me with a determined light in his eyes. "But Max, you _have_ to believe me. I'm Nick! Some witch used magic to turn me like this!" Okay, _some_body needed psychological help.

"You're lying. If you were Nick, you wouldn't talk to me." I backed away more quickly now. Was craziness contagious? I sure hope it wasn't. Well, at least I had something to use against Nick at school if he ever teased me again. The next time he made fun of me, I would just remind him that there had been a crazy person with an identity crisis in his house. That might downsize that huge ego of his. Oh wait. If I told him that, I would have to admit to having been to his house. Damn.

I turned around and started running away from the Nick-wannabe. But I was really jogging, not running. I assumed he wouldn't follow me. I assumed that he knew I would probably scream if he attempted to catch up to me.

Which is why I almost fainted in shock when I felt a sweaty hand close around my wrist, trying to turn me around. His hand felt so… gross. I usually wasn't so squeamish, but there was no other word to describe it. He was actually pretty strong, but I was stronger. I broke out of his grip almost immediately. As soon as he wasn't touching me anymore, I turned toward him and kicked him where the sun don't shine. Somebody's going to have a disfigured baby. The Nick-wannabe doubled over in pain.

"What… the… hell?" he managed to croak out.

I stood over him, fixing him with my death glare, Max's Death Glare ©2010. None of you can steal it! "Nobody touches me," I said venomously. I didn't like to be _touched_. Physical contact was just too… personal.

The Nick-wannabe stood up straight painfully. I smirked. Causing people pain was so much fun! "I really _am_ Nick. I swear. Just let me explain." His eyes looked into mine. He looked like he was about to get down on his knees and beg. As amusing as that would have been, I really _did_ want to know why this guy thought he was Nick.

"Okay, you've got a minute," I reluctantly agreed. He began to open his mouth to speak, but I interrupted him. "_But, _If you try to touch me again, I'm going to kick your butt from here to China. Got that?"

He nodded vigorously, managing to look like a creepy bobblehead. "Okay, so Cassandra turned out to be a witch and she called me a jerk and said I needed a punishment and turned me ugly then said that I had one year to find a girl to kiss me or I stay like this forever." He said that all in one breath. Woah, I hadn't been expecting _that…_

I doubled over laughing. This had to be a joke. Either that or he really needed to get sent to the funny farm. "You're… messing… with… me." I managed to sputter out between my laughs. "There… is… no… such… thing… as… magic." I was almost rolling on the grass and laughing—it was that funny. It wasn't everyday when an ugly guy tells you that he is really some hot guy a witch turned ugly. Wait. Had I just called Nick hot? I did NOT mean to do that?

I hadn't noticed the Nick-wannabe come closer to me in my laughing fit. But suddenly, he was standing only a few inches away from me. He grabbed my arms, and before I could react, he brought my lips to his forcefully. Only one thought was running through my mind: WTF? His lips were chapped, but warm. I struggled, trying to break out of his grip, but he held on to my arms tightly. Luckily, he didn't try to force my mouth open. He _really _would have gotten hurt if he had tried that. After a few seconds, I just stopped struggling, willing it to be over soon.

After a few more moments, he let me go. I saw disappointment in his eyes. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and mumbled something that sounded like, "Well, _that_ didn't work." I saw his shoulders slump and he gave a sigh of defeat. Why the hell had he kissed me? And why was he disappointed?

I waited a few more seconds before speaking again. I resisted the urge to run away and wash my mouth with soap. "What. The. Fuck. Was. That. For?" I said as I glared at him. It seemed like I was using my death glare more and more often. I didn't want to run away now. I wanted an explanation. I briefly considered the explanation he gave me before, but put it out of my head almost immediately. Because that _couldn't_ be true.

I saw the Nick-wannabe blink, and I saw him trying to hide his disappointment. Again, I wondered why he was disappointed. "Max, I was telling you the truth before. I was hoping that it would turn me back… you know… kissing you. I guess Cassandra really meant it when she said 'true love'." He muttered the last part almost to himself.

He looked up again, determined now. "Max, I'm going to prove to you that I'm Nick," he whispered softly but weirdly confidently. He didn't have anything to be confident about. He was obviously _not_ Nick, and his looks were nothing to be proud of.

I laughed sarcastically. "You next thing you know, you're going to tell me that the Tooth Fairy exists." I rolled my eyes. I was trying to decide if he was telling the truth or not. My brain seemed to be trying to tell me two different things at the same time. And trust me, it's no fun when your brain is arguing with itself. I could swear there was a voice inside my head arguing with the dominant part of my brain, which was telling me that magic didn't exist.

Me: There is no such thing as magic. It's just not possible.

Voice: There are things you don't know about that _do_ exist. You just haven't opened your eyes wide enough to see them yet.

Me: Are you trying to sound smart and philosophical?

Voice: I am trying to tell you the truth.

Me: Wait. Why am I talking to a voice _inside my head_? I'm going crazy!

If I had a desk, I would bang my head against it, resulting in the most epic headdesk ever. I had a voice inside my head. Sometimes, I thought I should be locked up in a place for crazy people.

"Okay, if you really think you're Nick, prove it." I crossed my arms over my chest, expecting to be able to say "epic fail" in an arrogant voice after he finished.

"Ask me any questions about Nick you want. I'll be able to answer them all. Because I _am_ Nick." He looked at me more confidently now. I almost laughed. This would be hilarious. I looked at his face but had to look away almost immediately because all the acne and oil on his face was a very nauseating combination. Was it even possible to have that many zits on one face?

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Okay, when did we first meet?" I knew nobody but Nick would be able to answer that. Nobody knew much about our friendship. When we were still friends, we had just let people wonder about it.

"Second grade. First day of school. I was new." My jaw dropped. That was… right. I was determined to prove that he wasn't Nick now.

"Okay, so what did I do to you in the 8th grade after you ate all of my chocolate-chip cookies?" I _knew_ he wouldn't be able to answer this one. We had pranked each other so many times in the 8th grade, but only one time was the result of a cookie theft. I was sure that Nick was the only one who knew.

The Nick-wannabe waited a moment before answering. Just when I thought he wouldn't be able to answer, he said, "You dyed all of my clothes pink. _All_ of them. Even my underwear. I still have no clue how you did that." Damn, right again. I glared at him. He smirked. This was turning into a challenge, to see if I would be able to think of a question he wouldn't be able to answer. And I never EVER backed down from a challenge. I narrowed my eyes to prepare myself.

The next few minutes were like a police interrogation. I asked him every question about Nick I could think of. He answered all of them correctly. Okay, this was getting kind of creepy. The Nick-wannabe's smirk grew more pronounced with each right answer and I became more and more frustrated. The questions mostly centered things Nick and I use to do when we were friends or things I still remembered about Nick. With each question, I was reminded of all the good times we had when we couldn't even _imagine_ not being friends.

I finally ran out of questions to ask the Nick-wannabe. Either he really was Nick or a _very_ talented stalker. All the signs pointed to the first option, but I wasn't ready to accept the existence of magic so easily. But… his explanation would explain everything—his appearance, why he kissed me, how he knew everything about Nick. I sat down on Nick's porch. I had to think.

"Now do you believe me?" The Nick-wannabe sat down next to me and looked into my eyes, willing me to understand. I realized that his eyes were twin pools of midnight. You could get lost in those dark, obsidian eyes. I realized that they didn't fit in with the rest of him. His eyes were beautiful, while the rest of him was… not. I felt my breath catch in my throat as I realized that his eyes looked exactly the same as Nick's eyes.

I stood up abruptly. I had to get home and _think_ without someone staring at me, waiting for an answer. If this was really Nick, and I now knew it probably was, I had to rethink my whole perspective of the world. I mean, finding out that magic exists isn't exactly an everyday thing. My head was spinning, and I felt like I wanted to just curl up and go to bed. Magic… it was hard to wrap my head around the fact that it was most likely real. I didn't know if I fully believed it yet, but I knew how I felt about Nick's transformation.

"Well, if you really are Nick…" I paused, watching his eyes light up as he realized that I was starting to believe him. I smiled. "You deserve whatever punishment anyone gives you." I turned away. My feet obeyed me this time, and I ran away as quickly as I could. For once, I was the one to have the last word. I was the one who had rejected him. And it felt so, so good.

**AN: That chapter may have been kind of weird. Max was a bit OOC. If you all hate it, I'll rewrite it. But if you didn't totally hate it, the next chapter will be Fang's POV of the events that happened in this chapter. His actions will be explained better in his POV. And any suggestions on how people will react to Nick/Fang's ugliness will be greatly appreciated. I almost forgot to add, I just made a FictionPress account. Well, not **_**just**_**. But I've never had an urge to actually use it until now. I'm thinking of writing a story about Cassandra and posting it on there. It will be what had happened in her life before this story. So, should I write it? **

**Cassandra: I want to be back in the story soon!**

**Me: Well, you'll just have to be patient. You might get your own story on FictionPress soon. **

**Cassandra: Might? I thought that was definite. I want my own story!**

**Me: Gosh, witches. So self-centered. **

**Cassandra: …..**

**Me: EEEEK! FANG IS COMING OUT IN A WEEK! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!**

**Cassandra: She's obsessed.**

**Me: But I'm ordering it on Amazon so I'll get it on the 17th or 18th. Nooooooooooooooo! I want it on the 15th!**

**Cassandra: Fangirls scare me. **

**Review?**


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: This chapter is the last chapter from Fang's POV with a little part at the beginning of what Fang/Nick did after Cassandra had left the night before and what he did before Max went to his house. I don't like this chapter that much. I free-handed the last part. I read FANG. I'm so depressed. Cookies and listening to Vanilla Twilight by Owl City took some of the pain away. I haven't decided if I like the book or not. I don't HATE it but I don't LOVE it either. I might write a cliché story that will have a happy ending just to make myself feel better about the ending of FANG (****6/17/10****: Haha, I'm rereading this story to fix things, and I found it ironic that basically none of my post-FANG oneshots have happy endings. I just thought I'd mention that.). On the bright side, now I have a valid reason to kill Dylan in a one-shot. MUAHAHAHAHAHA! I'm going out of town today and won't be back until late Saturday. There will probably be no Wi-Fi. So if I regularly review your story and don't review it for the next few days, don't kill me. If it takes me a while to reply to your review, don't kill me! There will also be no updates. I'm so, so sorry about the long wait, but I'm making up for it! This chapter is LONG! Over 3,000 words.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. Heck, I don't even own a copy of FANG yet! It hasn't come in the mail. Darn it. **

Fang/Nick POV 

I hadn't come out of my room since last night. My parents had just left me to do whatever they wanted, like they always did. Now all I had to do was avoid them for a year and I was golden.

I was an outcast now. I didn't fit in with everyone else, like they wanted me too. Who would want a teenage son who nobody else would accept? I knew that I never again would be able to show my face in public without being ashamed. People would be freaked out by my appearance. I was damn UGLY. Never again would I be able to get hot girls so easily. And the sad thing was, that was actually one of my biggest concerns. I slapped my forehead. Stupid, stupid, STUPID.

I had spent last night sitting on my bed, wondering how people would react. I glanced at the mirror next to my bed occasionally, hoping against all hope that a miracle had occurred and I had changed back since I had last looked. I had no such luck.

I had walked into my private bathroom that was connected to my bedroom. I stared at my reflection in the mirror. In a desperate attempt to make myself look at least slightly normal again, I had tried to wash the oil off my face.

It came back in two seconds flat. I tried shaving off the damn unibrow. The hair grew back almost immediately. I even went through the painful process of trying to pop all of my pimples. Again, they came back almost immediately. I tried to do everything I could to get my appearance back to normal, but nothing worked.

In frustration, I had punched the wall. Hard. I had needed to let my anger out on something. I stared at the bruised knuckles. _That_ was gonna hurt in the morning.

I came back into my room. I just wanted to go to bed and wake up to realize this was all a nightmare. A nightmare that seemed more real than any nightmare I'd had before. _Right, just go to bed and this will all be over in the morning, _I told myself. _Tomorrow would be Saturday. I could call Lissa and ask her if she wants to watch a movie in my room. And while the movie was playing, we could… have some fun. _

With that cheery thought, I had slipped into bed. My foot hit something hard. I realized that it was the mirror Cassandra had given me. Next to it was the rose. I held the mirror in my hand, wondering what I should do with it. The mirror would have been beautiful—if it hadn't been a reminder of my appearance. I glanced at my reflection in the mirror and felt a horrible headache coming. I guess I had always taken my looks for granted. You never know what you have until it's gone.

I was angry now. Angry at Cassandra for making me a freak. Angry at myself for somehow angering her enough to make her do this. Angry at the mirror for showing me how ugly I was. My grip on the handle of the mirror tightened. My knuckles began to turn white with the strain. My reflection stared at me, mocking me. Yet I found I couldn't turn away. My reflection disgusted me.

I tore my eyes away from the mirror. I swung my arm back to throw the mirror against the wall as hard as I could so I could stop staring at myself and hopefully destroy it in the process. But a few moments before the mirror would have left my hand, I stopped suddenly. I dropped the mirror onto the carpet next to my bed. I got up and kicked it under the bed. I didn't want to destroy it because it could be useful later. Cassandra _had_ said it would help me. Though I didn't know if Cassandra was trustworthy or not. I didn't want to see that mirror again anytime soon, because I didn't want to remind myself that I was ugly.

I looked around my bedroom. There was a mirror next to my dresser and one attached to my bedside table. I couldn't stand to see the sight of myself in those things. I walked to the mirror on my bedside table and took it out of the hooks that attached it to the table. I placed it under my bed. Seemed like underneath my bed was a popular place for mirrors to hang out. I turned the mirror next to my dresser around so that it faced the wall.

I remembered that there was a big mirror in my bathroom too. I walked in and unable to avoid seeing my face, I cringed. I walked to the mirror and winced as I saw my face close up. All that acne stood out noticeably. I tried to remove the mirror from the wall, but it was attached to the wall tightly. No matter how hard I pulled, the freaking mirror stayed out. After a few minutes of tugging on it and no progress, I gave up and walked out of the bathroom. I would definitely avoid it from now on.

I looked at my bed. The blood red rose Cassandra had given me was at the foot of my bed—the red color stood out against the black sheets. I stood next to my bed, wondering what to do with it. I couldn't throw it away because it might be useful to have a magical item, but I didn't want to keep it somewhere where I would always see it, reminding me of my impossible task.

Finally, I took it and placed it in one of my empty dresser drawers. It would be out of sight there.

I sighed and got into bed. _This will be over in the morning_, I told myself halfheartedly. I would have to hide myself form the world now. Be a creature of the dark. Kind of like a vampire. And not those sparkly Twilight vampires. A real vampire who everyone thought was a freak. As I fell asleep, one word floated through my mind: Fang.

When I woke up, my parents had already left for work. Typical. Most of the time, they acted like they hadn't even wanted to have me. It would be easy to avoid them this weekend.

I couldn't resist going into the bathroom, to look in the mirror to see if I had miraculously changed overnight even though I was 99.9% sure that I hadn't. I was desperate.

When I saw my still-ugly face in the mirror, I was disappointed. But I knew that what I hoped for was highly unlikely, so I wasn't _too_ disappointed. I didn't break down crying, at least. Because that would be so _great_ for my manly image.

What Cassandra wanted me to do was fucking impossible! Girls would rather kiss toads! How the hell was I going to explain my appearance to people? Maybe I should just shut myself up in my room for the rest of my sad, pathetic, lonely life. As tempting as that was, I knew it was impossible. Sooner or later, my parents would check on me or one of my friends would come over to see why I wasn't at school.

In other words, I was in _very_ deep shit. In fact, I was about to get buried by it.

I breathed, trying to calm myself and clear my head. _Don't worry about it until Monday, _I told myself. The last thing I needed now was stress. Stress would probably make me break out in acne or something.

I went downstairs. Our large house was pretty awesome, but it was too large for three people. It felt especially empty today. I headed to the kitchen immediately, craving some junk food. I knew it would only make me fatter than I already was, but I didn't freaking care right then.

As I walked past the front door, I saw a shape behind the frosted glass of the door. I couldn't tell who it was—the frosted glass distorted the shape too much—but I could see that the figure was just standing there, wondering whether he/she should ring the bell or not. Shit, it was probably one of my friends, wanting to hang out, thinking that this was like any normal Saturday. Too bad it wasn't. I had to pretend nobody was home. But if it was one of my friends, why would they hesitate before ringing the doorbell?

Well, I sure wasn't going to open the door and find out. I ran to the stairs, hoping to get to my room as quickly as possible. I happened to glance out of one of the living room windows—you could see out of them but nobody could see in—which gave me a good view of my front porch. But most importantly, it let me see the person who was standing in front of the door, her hand hovering above the doorbell. My breath caught in my throat, _Max._

I didn't know what to do, how to react. Why the hell was she here? I hadn't seen her at my house since freshman year.

But the worst thing was, she looked utterly, undeniably beautiful. The sun brought out the amazing gold streaks in her hair. Even in sweats, I could see her curves. And damn, she had one heck of an amazing body.

She was standing there; her eyes slightly narrowed and was biting her lower lip unconsciously, looking like she always did when she was thinking. I could almost imagine I was younger and Max had come to tell me something important. That was how she had always looked when she was trying to decide whether to go in or not.

And suddenly, I had one of my rare moments of genius. _Max was a girl…_ Before I could finish that thought, I had walked over to the front door and yanked it open. I found myself staring into Max's chocolate brown eyes.

Looking back on it, I realized I didn't really _think_ before my actions. If I had, I would have seen how _completely and utterly stupid_ opening the door was. It was _so_ smart to show the girl who hates me my new ugly face so she could make sure my life becomes hell.

I saw Max stare at my face, my arms, the rest of my body. I knew that Max was probably completely freaked out. I didn't blame her.

"Max," I whispered. Her name sounded nice on my lips. I hadn't used it frequently after our—for lack of a better term—breakup. I saw Max widen her eyes in confusion. I could tell she was thinking something along the lines of, "Who the f*** is this ugly dude and how the hell does he know my name?" I wanted to run back inside and hide, but it was too late now.

I saw Max take a small step back. I didn't blame her for not wanting to be anywhere near me. Heck, _I_ didn't want to be anywhere near me. Too bad I had no choice.

"Who are you?" Max was still freaked out, I could tell. She was shifting from foot to foot, as if deciding whether to run away or not. Her eyes were narrowed at me and she was still biting her lip. Damn, she was adorable when she was confused.

Before I could stop myself, I said four words that I would later regret. But it was like my mouth wasn't connected to my brain. "Max, it's me, Nick." The words left my mouth before I could stop them. Well, there was no going back now.

Max took a step back and looked at me like I was crazy. I saw her mentally comparing my new appearance with my old one. I looked totally different. I knew she wouldn't believe me. But I would _have_ to make her believe me. There was a new determination in me. I wasn't going to stay a freak forever.

"Max! You have to believe me! I'm telling the truth!" I reached a hand out toward her, to keep her from running away. I just wanted to talk to her. Max took another step back. I wondered why she hadn't run away yet. But I knew this mystery would intrigue her. She was always naturally curious about everything. She would want to find out why I thought I was Nick. And I just hoped her curiosity would keep her here long enough to explain.

Max looked at me like I was a demented alien. "I don't know who you are, but you are definitely _not_ Nick. Nick doesn't look …" She paused. I knew what she was going to say next, and I was kind of prepared for it. "You're just…" It was like she didn't know whether she should say it or not.

I decided to just get it out in the open. I sighed, looking down at my feet. "I'm just ugly, aren't I?" I might as well accept it now. There was no point denying it. I could feel my cheeks heating up. Dammit! "I'm a freak."

I was silent for the next few seconds. But then, I realized that this would probably be my last chance to explain this to Max—to anyone actually. Max was probably the only person who wouldn't run away at first sight. When I looked up, there was a determined light in my eyes.

"But Max, you have to believe me. I'm Nick! Some witch used magic to turn me like this!" As soon as the words left my mouth, I realized that they were probably not the smartest things to say. Max was looking at me like little green men had taken over my brain.

"You're lying. If you were Nick, you wouldn't talk to me." That was true. But times change. I noticed Max was backing away from me more quickly now. I wanted to make her stop. I had to keep her here. She started running away from me. Crap! Crap! Crap! I wanted to bang my head against the nearest wall. I saw Max getting farther and farther way from me. I gritted my teeth. I couldn't let this happen.

I ran and caught up to her. It wasn't that hard. She wasn't running at her full speed, probably assuming that I wouldn't try to catch up to her. I grabbed her wrist to stop her.

As soon as I touched her, I knew it was a mistake. Max didn't like to be _touched_. Oops.

She broke out of my grip almost immediately. Shit. She was still as strong as she used to be. She turned and looked at me, her eyes blazing with anger. I backed away, but not quickly enough

She gave me a swift kick where it counts. I doubled over in pain. This hurt like hell. I saw Max smirking. Well, at least _some_one enjoyed my pain.

"What…the…hell?" I managed to croak out. She glared at me with her famous death glare. Amazingly, I had kind of missed it. It reminded me of the good old days when we used to wrestle for fun and she had glared at me whenever I won.

"Nobody touches me," she said. Well, I had learned my lesson.

I stood up straight painfully. "I really am Nick. I swear. Just let me explain." I was getting very desperate now. I had to make her understand. I was more wary of her now. One wrong move could mean more pain. I looked into her eyes, pleading silently.

"Okay, you've got a minute." She looked like she was reluctant to agree. I opened my mouth to speak, but she cut me off. "_But, _If you try to touch me again, I'm going to kick your butt from here to China. Got that?"

I nodded vigorously, understanding what she wanted perfectly. "Okay, so Cassandra turned out to be a witch and she called me a jerk and said I needed a punishment and turned me ugly then said I had one year to find a girl to kiss me or I stay like this forever." I said that all in one breath. Max looked shocked. I guess she hadn't been expecting that.

She started laughing. At first, they were just small giggles. But then, she started laughing loudly and openly. My face burned. Damn, she didn't believe me. But had I really expected her to? "You're…messing…with…me." She managed to sputter out between her laughs. "There… is… no… such… thing… as… magic." She had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard. I knew I had to do it now. Max was distracted.

I had to kiss her.

Cassandra had said that I would turn back once a girl kissed me. I was sure it would make no difference if _I _kissed the girl. It would still be a kiss, right? And it was even an accomplishment that a girl had even let me close enough for me to kiss her. And the only girl who was here was Max. I decided to ignore the fact that Cassandra had sad "true love". Well, finding "true love" was a bunch of bullshit anyway.

I walked closer to Max. She didn't notice me in her laughing fit. I grabbed her arms. I held them tight, hoping she wouldn't be able to break out of my grip this time. I brought her lips to mine forcefully. Her lips were soft. I had no idea they could be this soft. She struggled, but I still held on to her arms. After a few seconds, she stopped struggling, but she didn't kiss me back either.

I felt no change to my body. I felt the same. But maybe I had changed back without realizing it? I let Max go and brought a hand to my face. It was still covered in acne.

I hadn't changed.

I wanted to go punch something, hurt somebody. Preferably Cassandra. But I resisted the urge. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand absentmindedly and gave a sigh of defeat. "Well, _that_ didn't work," I mumbled.

Max looked disgusted. Suddenly, I just wanted to crawl into bed again, even though it wasn't even noon yet. I wanted to hide from the world. "What. The. Fuck. Was. That. For?" Max glared at me again. Of course she didn't want to be kissed by an ugly guy. Who would? Even _Max, _who wasn't exactly the most popular girl around, didn't want me. This sucked.

I blinked, trying to hide his disappointment. "Max, I was telling you the truth before. I was hoping that it would turn me back…you know…kissing you." I paused. "I guess she really meant it when she said 'true love'," I mumbled to myself.

I knew I couldn't mope around forever though. Even if Max wasn't my "true love", she could still help me. And I had to make her believe me.

I looked at her, determined again. "Max, I'm going to prove to you I'm Nick," I said confidently.

Max laughed sarcastically. "The next thing you know, you're going to tell me that the Tooth Fairy exists." She rolled her eyes. I knew sarcasm was just Max's way of dealing with weird situations, so I didn't let it get to me. I could see that she was thinking hard.

Finally, she said, "Okay, if you really think you're Nick, prove it." She crossed her arms over her chest.

I thought fast. How would I be able to prove to her that I was really who I said I was? It wasn't like she could read my mind and see that I was telling the truth.

I got an idea. "As me any questions about Nick you want. I'll be able to answer them all. Because I _am_ Nick." I looked at her more confidently now. I could handle this. Well, unless she asked me something I couldn't remember.

"Okay, when did we first meet?" Max asked. I knew Max thought she was being clever when she asked that. Well, too bad I knew the answer. I had never been able to forget that first day.

"Second grade. First day of school. I was new." Max's jaw dropped. She hadn't expected me to get that right. Hahaha. So the score was Nick: 1 Max: 0.

"Okay, so what did I do to you in the 8th grade after you ate all of my chocolate chip cookies?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

I thought I didn't know the answer at first. There had been so many pranks in 8th grade…but then I remembered. It had been the most embarrassing prank she had pulled. I still didn't like to talk about it. "You dyed all of my clothes pink. _All_ of them. Even my underwear. I still have no clue how you did that." And it was true. I shuddered, remembering it. People who remembered still made fun of me sometimes. Max's smirk was fading. I knew this was turning into a challenge for her, and she never backed down from a challenge. She would try as hard as she could to think of a question I couldn't answer.

Let the police interrogation begin.

Max asked me everything she could think of. Most of the questions were easy. I still remembered the things I used to do with Max. I could tell Max was becoming more and more frustrated with each right answer. My smirk grew bigger and bigger.

Finally, she ran out of questions to ask me. She looked at me, and I looked at her, neither of us talking. Max walked over to my porch and sat down. "Now do you believe me?" I sat down next to her, willing her to understand. Max looked up and _really_ saw my eyes for the first time. My eyes were one of the only things that hadn't changed in the transformation. I didn't know what Max saw in my eyes, but I hoped she only saw good. I crossed my fingers behind my back. That had always been my good luck thing. I could tell Max was deep in thought.

Suddenly, Max stood up. I could tell that she had made a decision. I heart started beating faster. I _had_ to know. I looked at her, and she smiled. I wondered if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Well, if you really are Nick…" Was she started to believe me? YES! "You deserve whatever punishment anyone gives you," she finished. My jaw dropped. Max ran away, and I was left on my porch, speechless.

And alone.

**AN: Please, please, please review! This chapter was…weird. I think it was. It was kind of rushed. I have to go in a few minutes. **

**Me: Bob, I'm going to teach you English.**

**Bob: Urgh?**

**Me: Okay, Bob, say "book"!**

**Bob: (look of concentration on face) Urgh. **

**Me: No, Bob. Boooooooooook.**

**Bob: Oorgh!**

**Me: I GIVE UP! You're hopeless! I'm going to eat some cookies now!**

**Bob: Urgh?**

**Review?**


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: I'm so so so so sorry for the long wait. I've just been pretty busy. In fact, I'm blowing off studying for a science test so I can update. I haven't been in the mood to write a Maximum Ride fanfiction lately, unless it's post-FANG. You may have been wondering if I was dead. Those of you who read my other stories knew I wasn't dead, but for those of you who don't, I'M ALIVE! YAY, YOU GET AN UPDATE. I'll try not to make you wait so long for another update. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. Joyousness.**

Fang/Nick POV

I sat down on my porch and felt the sting of Max's words. Sure, I was a sexist jerk, but I wasn't that bad, right? I touched my lips. I could have sworn I had felt something when I had kissed Max. But she wasn't my "one true love" so it didn't matter anyway. Why the hell did this have to happen to me? Why couldn't it have happened to, say, Justin Bieber? There was _one_ guy who needed his ego taken down a notch.

I walked toward my front door, thinking of profanities I could scream at Cassandra the next time I saw her—if I saw her. I kicked over a potted plant on our porch, pretending it was her head.

I placed my hand on the doorknob, and suddenly, I heard a car turning into the driveway. I turned around and saw an expensive, shiny new car. My dad's car. With both of my parents inside.

And they had seen me.

Why the hell were they home from work so early? This had never happened before. Both of them usually worked well into the evening. It was only noon. I pushed the door open and ran inside my house, hoping to be able to reach my room and hide before they could confront me. To them, I wouldn't be their son. I would be a stranger—and intruder—in their home. I ran up the stairs two at a time, hoping that maybe, _just maybe, _I had been wrong and they hadn't seen me.

I had no such luck.

I was halfway up the stairs when I heard the front door open loudly. My dad must have ran from the car to the house quickly. He was breathing heavily. I heard my mom's footsteps behind him

Well, shit, then.

I considered just running up to my room and ignoring them, but then decided it wasn't a good idea. Finding someone who looked like a stranger in their house might freak them out a little. But you know, just a _little. _

I turned around to face them. I saw my dad's eyes widened when he took in my appearance. The overabundance of acne, the red splotches on my arms, and my oily hair. I guess my dad wasn't used to seeing extremely ugly people very often.

Sometimes I wondered how the hell we were even related. Both my parents had blond hair and light-colored eyes. My mom's were light green while my dad's were light blue. They were definitely different from my dark eyes and dark hair. I once asked them if I was adopted but they had insisted I took after my grandfather. But I had never met him, never even seen his picture. He had died before I was born.

My mom came running through the door. I could see that both my parents were freaked out and I didn't blame them. It would definitely be a surprise to find some random ugly person who somehow broke into their house and was heading upstairs while their son somehow hadn't noticed. And even if they believed the truth about what had happened to me to make me like this, they would still probably hate me. They liked things to be perfect.

I glared at my parents. I had no idea what they would do when I told them what had happened, but I was sure they wouldn't want a son who wasn't ideal. We had been living in this neighborhood for years. Almost all the kids here were snobby rich kids who got everything they wanted with their parent's money. I fit right in.

My parents stared at me in silence for a minute. But then my dad started to open his mouth. I braced myself. Whatever he said sure wasn't going to be pretty.

"Who the fuck are you and what the hell are you doing in our house?" my dad asked venomously. He glared at me. "We're calling the police," he threatened. My mom took out her cell phone, her hand shaking, and began to dial a number.

I rolled my eyes. Guess I never had much respect for authority. Well, time to drop the bombshell. "Sure, call the police on your own son," I said, keeping my voice as calm as possible.

I was actually looking forward to their reactions. There was a stranger who claimed to be their son and looked _nothing_ like him. What would _you_ do?

My mom's jaw dropped. And so did the cell phone in her hand. My dad's eyes widened and practically bulged out of their sockets. It would have been funny if the situation wasn't so serious.

There was an awkward silence for a little bit. Somewhere around the world, a gay baby was born.

Finally, my dear, loving father (note the sarcasm) broke the silence. "How the hell could you be Nick?" he glared at me, but made no move to call the police because a _crazy_ ugly person had broke into their house. I guess he was in shock.

I smirked cockily. "Ask nicely," I said sarcastically. What can I say? No respect for authority whatsoever.

My dad gritted his teeth angrily. I could tell that he wasn't used to being talked to like this. But I _always _talked to him like this. I guess that was the only reason he hadn't called the police yet. Maybe he realized that the only person who would act like this around him was me.

"Tell me who you are or I'm calling the damn police," he threatened. I was _so_ scared. Not.

"I told you the truth," I was actually enjoying this. I didn't know if they would believe me or not, but it was fun to freak them out.

If looks could kill, the glares from my dad would have killed me by now. "If you really _are_ Nick, why do you look different?"

"Are you asking me why I don't look like your perfect, good-looking son?" I sneered. My voice rose suddenly. I was yelling now, glad to be able to let out all of my anger. "Do you actually _think_ I want to be like this? Well, I don't!"

"Then what the hell happened to you?" my dad was yelling now too. I saw my mom try to slip into the kitchen inconspicuously. I guess she didn't want to be in the middle of a fight.

"A witch," I said, raising my eyebrows. I knew vague, incomplete answers would annoy my dad. I saw him clench and unclench his fists, taking calming breaths to control his temper. His face turned red, then purple.

"Explain. Now," he said using his most commanding voice.

"I made someone angry…" I trailed off, just to irritate him. It turns out purple looks horrible on him.

"And?" he prompted while still glaring at me warily. Surprisingly, I almost laughed. Like I said, _complete_ disrespect for authority. I settled for a small smirk.

"And she turned out to be a witch who turned me like this using magic," I said as nonchalantly as possible. My dad has a genuine WTF look on this face. He backed away, as if wanting to get away from the crazy person. Talking about magic could be considered a sign of insanity.

I saw my dad rub his forehead with his fingers as though he had a headache. I wonder why…

"And why the hell was she mad enough to make you…like this?" I didn't know whether to be happy that my dad seemed to be accepting my explanation or not. I guess nothing else would make sense to him. This house had great security. Almost nobody could get in without an alarm going off unless they had the keys. He seemed like he didn't know what to do. As much as I disrespected my parents, they had been my last hope. I had hoped that they would know what to do, had some special antidote that would turn me back to the way I used to be.

Guess they didn't.

"How should I fucking know? The damn girl is crazy!" I yelled, throwing my arms up in frustration.

Dad put his face in his hands as if he was tired and didn't know what to do. Ha, _he_ didn't know what to do? He didn't have to deal with being ugly every day. He didn't have to deal with knowing your life had changed—for the worse.

"Go to your room until we can decide what to do with you," my dad said as he rubbed his temples tiredly.

I ran into my room and slammed the door shut with a loud thud. His last words ran through my mind as I fell on the bed, suddenly more tired than I had ever been before. _Until I can figure out what to do with you._ He had said it like I wasn't a human capable of feelings. Like I was an animal. And I could detect the hidden meaning in his words. He had really meant, "Until I can figure out how to hide you away from actual people."

They were ashamed of me, just like I feared they would be.

I jumped off the bed suddenly. I knew I couldn't stay here anymore—couldn't stay in the house when my parents were embarrassed about me.

But where could I go?

And suddenly, I thought of someone I could go to. _Aunt Mandy. _She was my mom's sister, but they were total opposites. My mom was always practical and stuck to the rules, but Aunt Mandy was more fun and open-minded. She had taken care of me when I was a little kid and my parents were off at work. Hopefully, she would understand the situation and let me stay at her house for a while.

I took out my backpack and threw in a few necessities. I slung my backpack over my shoulder. There was a tree next to my bedroom window, its branches brushing it. I opened the window and carefully climbed out, keeping a tight hold on the branches of the tree. It was a tight fit, but eventually, I was able to get outside my bedroom. I climbed down the tree was swiftly and quietly as I could. I got a few scrapes and cuts—I hadn't used this way to exit my bedroom since I was 10.

When I got close enough to the ground, I jumped out of the tree, landing on my feet softly. I took out my cell phone and began to dial a number. Time to tell someone else what had happened to me.

Max POV

I had a dream that night. The guy who looked like Nick was in it. He had wings and so did I.

I don't remember much from the dream, but I do remember we were in a cave. He looked like he was about to kiss me, like the first time I had thought of him. He was getting so close, his hand on my cheek. His lips looked so soft, so kissable. I woke up before our lips met. I was breathing hard, and there was sweat on my forehead. I wiped it away with my hand. I was still shaken from my dream. Why did I see this guy when I was asleep or let my mind wander?

And who the hell was he?

**AN: So, Max is starting to remember… Don't worry, the rest of the flock IS going to be in this story. Because StarsLeanDownToKissYou has wanted me to try to teach Bob English again, today I'm going to try to get him to say "Fang", a word that I say VERY VERY OFTEN.**

**Me: Say "Fang."**

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: Urgh.**

**Me: No, FANG.**

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: FURGH.**

**Me: FANG! FANG! FANG! FANG!**

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: FARGH!**

**Me: Better…sorta… One more try… FANG!**

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: FAGH!**

**Me: *headdesk***

**Review?**


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: Hey, people! Caris L. Clearwater asked me something very important. She asked how Max and Fang talk about things that happened before they got their memories erased. Well, when the whitecoats cleared their memory, they made them think they had different lives by putting fake memories in. You'll see why in this chapter. Tell me if that makes any sense or not. Nothing really important happens in this chapter. This chapter is really just explaining stuff. I didn't plan on putting a song in this chapter, it just felt like it fit. And yeah, it was stuck in my head. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own MR or Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol.**

At Jeb's House

Jeb rubbed his temples with his fingers, willing his throbbing headache to go away. He groaned. Coordinating an experiment took sure took a lot out of him.

He was at home, the place where he worked from. His laptop was on and there was a steaming cup of coffee next to it that he had been drinking to wake himself up. There was light streaming through the windows, but the sunshine didn't cheer him up or warm him up. He was tired and just wanted to go back to bed.

But he had a flock to monitor.

He had first proposed this idea as an experiment. Wipe the members of the flock's memories, make them think they'd had drastically different lives, and see what would happen if they thought they were fully human and had always been fully human. Valencia, Max's mom, had gladly agreed when Jeb had sold the idea to her as a way to give the Max and the flock the normal lives they'd never had. Jeb knew he'd have to get Max's mother's support in order to pull this off.

What was left of Itex—the scientists who had escaped when the flock had caused kids to destroy the branches of Itex, the ones who had escaped imprisonment for illegal experimentation—had also agreed to help Jeb. They loved experimentation, and they had missed it when Itex had been destroyed. Of course, Jeb had only asked the scientists he could trust, his friends who would agree to his wishes when he asked the flock wouldn't be harmed—that the only purpose for this "experiment" was to help them. They had agreed—the scientists didn't _mean_ to be cruel and evil. They were just curious and loved experimentation and didn't really care if they caused mental and physical harm to their living subjects. Jeb knew he could trust all of them. They had proven their loyalties already, by not messing up the procedure of erasing the bird-kids' memories.

Little did he know, he was wrong.

Of course, Jeb had to do something with their wings. No _humans_ had wings. So he had gotten some of the scientists to rearrange the flock's DNA so that they no longer had wings. There was a way to reverse that change, of course, but only Jeb and the scientists who had set the change up in the first place knew how.

As much as Jeb hated to admit it, he kind of liked wielding that kind of power. At least now maybe the flock would realize how much he had done for them, how many times he had saved their lives. Then maybe they would finally respect him.

Yeah, _right_. And pigs could fly. But then, there were already flying _children_, who was to say no to flying _pigs_?

And of course, Jeb had another reason for erasing the flock's memory. When Max and Fang had gotten together, Jeb had had his doubts. They had been friends for so long; who knew if this "relationship" of theirs could work? If they broke up and hated each other, the whole flock might split up. And that couldn't happen.

They still had a world to save.

So Jeb had devised a plan to see if they really _did_ belong together like they thought they did. He wanted to see if they would still get together even without knowing their shared history. He wanted to see if they would get together even without the shared experience of having wings. He wanted to see if they would get together even if they thought they hated each other. He wanted to see if they would get together even if they were human.

This was an experiment to Jeb, but he believed it was a noble experiment nonetheless. And it wasn't like he was going to keep them wingless forever.

Unless someone prevented him from giving them back their wings, of course.

But who would do that?

Jeb walked over to his cup of coffee and took a sip, hoping that the caffeine would wake him up.

Suddenly, he heard his cell phone ring. He looked at the caller ID and saw that it was another scientist, one who was supposed to be monitoring Max and Fang to see how they were doing as regular humans. Jeb had other scientists watching the rest of the flock members too.

Jeb flipped his cell phone open, pressing it to his ear. He was still drinking his coffee calmly—he didn't believe this call would be of any importance. His plan had worked for 2 years, why would it go wrong now?

That was why the next words he heard chilled him to the bone. "Something's wrong with Fang, Jeb. Something went wrong."

Cassandra POV

Loud music blared out of my radio as I mixed some herbs and brightly-colored liquids together, hoping I wouldn't accidently blow up the house. Yes, that was actually a valid concern for me. I hummed along to the song under my breath, and contemplated my latest spell.

The look on Nick's face when he had seen himself in the mirror was pure gold. I wish I'd had a camera so I could take a picture and show it in public. But no, witches can't create things out of thin air and I had no camera with me. I loved making people unhappy.

Sometimes, I worried about my sanity.

I had known that Max would never fall in love with Nick if he was still beautiful and popular. Sure, she would be _attracted_ to him, but that wouldn't be love. I knew Max would never really try to get to know Nick again unless he was like this. Being ugly deflated his ego, and I was sure Max wouldn't want to date an egotistical jerk. And I didn't think Max wanted to compete with Nick's fangirls either. Especially his slutty girlfriend.

Max hated Nick because he was a player, but they had been friends before that. If Nick was less of a player, maybe Max would try to get to know him again. And there had to be _some_body out there who was Nick's one true love. And I had a feeling it was Max.

He had needed a punishment. He was ugly on the inside and people needed to see him for what he really was. He needed to realize how hard life was when you weren't beautiful and got everything you wanted easily.

Of course, Nick's new looks could also scare Max away, but that was a problem to be worried about later.

Max POV

I got out of bed and walked over to my desk. I kept a photo album in one of the drawers attached to the desk. The album was important to me, but I hated it anyway. The thing hadn't been opened for a while, and there was a thin layer of dust on the black leather cover.

I opened the album and saw the face of a familiar dark-haired boy staring back at me. He was wearing all black. The picture had been taken in 8th grade. The boy's arm was slung casually around the shoulders of a brown haired girl. Me. Nick and I had looked so happy then. A song that I had heard on the radio recently suddenly sprang to mind.

_We'll do it all_

_Everything_

_On our own_

_We don't need_

_Anything_

_Or anyone_

The photo album was full of pictures of Nick and me back when we were still friends. I used to sit around staring at these pictures and reminisce about the good times. I had stopped doing so in the past year or so, though.

_If I lay here_

_If I just lay here_

_Would you lie with me and just forget the world?_

I used to be able to forget everything that worried me whenever I was with him.

_I don't quite know_

_How to say_

_How I feel_

True, I didn't even really know how I felt about him, much less be able to _tell_ him my feelings. I had thought I hated him, but now…I didn't really now. How did I feel about his transformation, which I had by now accepted? There was simply no other explanation for everything that had happened, especially how the ugly boy seemed to know everything about Nick. Of course he kind of deserved to be ugly, but…

_Those three words_

_Are said too much_

_They're not enough._

Wait, what? NOT those three words. That wasn't the way I felt about him at all.

_If I lay here_

_If I just lay here_

_Would you lie with me and just forget the world?_

_Forget what we're told_

_Before we get too old_

_Show me a garden that's bursting into life._

Of course Nick was a jerk, but did he deserve what Cassandra had done to him? I didn't know the dang answer to that, which frustrated me to no end.

_Let's waste time_

_Chasing cars_

_Around our heads_

_I need your grace_

_To remind me_

_To find my own_

That dream I'd had…the guy looked like Nick, but was it really him? No damn way. Nick doesn't have _wings_. That dream was just that: a dream, with no basis in reality.

_If I lay here_

_If I just lay here_

_Would you lie with me and just forget the world?_

_Forget what we're told_

_Before we get too old_

_Show me a garden that's bursting into life_

Should I tell Nick about the dreams? I tried to believe that the dream was totally and completely made up and false, but some instinct told me the dreams were important. I was dying to tell someone about it. And truthfully, I kind of wanted to be able to trust Nick again. Would his transformation have changed him for the better?

_All that I am_

_All that I ever was_

_Is there in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see_

_I don't know where_

_Confused about how as well_

_Just know that these things will never change for us at all_

Before I could change my mind, I took my phone off my desk, dialing a number I that had once been so familiar to me. It was kind of sad that I still remembered it. I crossed my fingers, hoping that he hadn't changed his cell phone number.

_If I lie here_

_If I just lie here_

_Would you lie with me and just forget the world? _

**AN: I hope that cleared things up for some people. Tell me if none of it makes any sense. Hey, this is for all you Twilight-haters out there. I co-wrote a fic with CJ Izzy103 that makes fun of Edward Cullen. Please check it out. It's called The Life and Lies of Edward Cullen. The intro is pretty short, but it'll get longer later. Also, I'm reading a really good fic by CJ Izzy 103 called Breaking the Rules. I think it has a really good beginning. Check it out. It's in my Favorite Stories. **

**Me: Oh. Glory-Genius gave me an awesome idea: Bribe Bob with cookies to make him speak English. So I'm going to try that. Bob, say "Fang" and you get a cookie. *holds cookie in front of Bob***

**Bob: Urgh. *shakes head***

**Me: IT'S A CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE! ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS SAY "FANG"! **

**Bob: Fargh!**

**Me: You know what? I'm just gonna eat this damn cookie myself. *eats cookie* Ha, Bob! You don't get the cookie! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!**

**Bob: *shakes head sadly* Urgh…**

**Review?**


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: Hey. It's been a while, hasn't it? *dodges any flying things that might be thrown this way* I've had really bad writer's block. That's the best excuse I can give you. *winces* Um, this chapter is kind of bad. Okay, not even **_**kind of. **_**It's just…crappy. I'm really just posting this so I can update and because I had to get this out of the way. This is really short too. So…sorry. I'm also really sorry that not all of the flock is in this chapter. I'll put them in next chapter. I promise! But I break my promises a lot… **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. **

Max POV

I threw the phone onto my bed as hard as I could. Busy. Nick was calling someone. Just when I wanted to talk to him, I couldn't. Oh, the irony. I _wanted_ to tell someone about the dreams. And Nick was the only one who could help. I mean, the daydream and the dream had featured both of us. Together. I tried to put that thought out of my head. In every dream I'd had, it seemed like the Nick look-alike and I were together—_together_ together. I was even willing to help him with his…problem if he would help me figure out why the Nick look-alike had wings.

But I didn't want to call him again. Maybe when I hadn't been able to reach him, the fates were telling me that calling him was a bad idea. When I had called him before, it was a split-second decision. I hadn't had time to doubt my choice. But now I could stop and think about what I was doing. It was possibly the worst decision I could ever make. He would probably just think I was crazy and make fun of me for dreaming about him—or at least someone who looked exactly like him. But then, he wasn't in any better position. He was the one a witch had turned ugly.

Fang/Nick POV

"Nicky, come play with me." I felt a tug on my wrist and looked down to see a little blonde girl look up at me with her big blue eyes.

I had arrived at Aunt Mandy's house last night. She had understood about what had happened and she said she would let me stay here for a while. She was divorced and had two kids, Angela and Zephyr.

Angel was the one who was currently tugging on the sleeve of my shirt. The good thing about her was that she didn't exactly see me as _ugly_, just different. She seemed more introspective and logical than most 8-year-olds. This may seem weird, but it was almost like she could _read_ people and tell what they were thinking or something. Probably just my imagination though.

Zephyr was…strange. He had a very, very messed up digestive system and it seemed like he liked to blow things up. Maybe that wasn't healthy for a 10-year-old kid.

Staying here, away from the prying eyes of the people who knew me almost made me forget what had happened to me. Until I looked into a mirror, that is.

Aunt Mandy believed me. I don't know why. It wasn't every day when a stranger (and an ugly one at that) shows up claiming to be your nephew even though he looked nothing like him.

But she had believed me anyway, and that was what mattered. That was the difference between her and my parents, I guess. They didn't believe anything could happen that didn't follow the regular laws of science. Of course, I didn't used to believe in things that didn't make sense either. But I guess now I did. It wasn't like I had a choice.

"Nick, come play!" The tugging on my arm was more insistent now. I let her pull me along to the living room, where she had a dollhouse set up. Barbies were strewn around the living room floor and on the couches, I saw that Angela had been trying to give them makeovers or something because makeup had been applied messily to their faces. I guess that was an 8-year-old's idea of making something "pretty".

I sat down on the couch, watching Angela play with the dolls.

"Nick, can I talk to you?" Aunt Mandy called from the kitchen. I gave Angela an apologetic look and walked into the kitchen. Aunt Mandy was cooking, stirring something in a large pot that was sitting in the stove with a wooden spoon. She looked kind of preoccupied, so I leaned against the doorway, looking bored. I realized something. Looking bored out of your mind only makes you look good when you have the looks to back it up. Otherwise, you just look like an idiot.

Aunt Mandy was stirring whatever was in the pot furiously. Her long, light brown hair was tied in a messy bun that had a few hairs escaping from it. Her eyes were narrowed in concentration. Does someone really need that much concentration to cook? I wouldn't know. I had never cooked before in my life. My family had a hired cook to make our meals.

After a few minutes, Aunt Mandy stopped her furious stirring and looked at me with her dark brown eyes that were so similar to mine. She stared straight into my eyes. I guess those were the only things about me that were okay to look at. I had to be grateful for one thing. Cassandra hadn't done anything to my eyes. At least they looked normal. Yeah, a load of good _that'll_ do.

"So, what are you going to do now?" Aunt Mandy asked, still maintaining direct contact with my eyes. I began to get the feeling that she wasn't just looking at my eyes because it was the only part of me worth looking at. Max had used to say that people could see my emotions through my eyes if they knew me well enough. She said that they were the only windows to my emotions. I have _got_ to stop thinking about things that Max used to say.

I looked back at Aunt Mandy. She actually expected me to do something? What the hell did she expect me to do? Work my nonexistent irresistible charm on the ladies? I was doomed like this.

"What do you mean?" I asked hesitantly.

She rolled her eyes. "Are you actually planning on hiding from the public forever?"

"Not forever…"

"Are you too scared to even fight this?" she gestured to my appearance.

I shrugged. "There's no point, is there?" I sat down in a kitchen chair, defeated.

"Giving up so quickly? You're going to regret this one day," she said confidently.

I looked at her like she was crazy. I didn't say anything. It was like I had used up my daily allocation of words I could speak in a day. I had gotten more talkative since Max and I ended our friendship because I wanted to prove to her that I could get friends easily, but I still didn't like talking too much.

"You used to be stubborn. What happened?" There was anger in Aunt Mandy's eyes. Anger directed at _me_. I was almost tempted to say that I would try and get rid of my curse, but I knew there was no point. I didn't want to get my hopes up then have them crushed again.

"What's the point of trying when I know I'm not going to be able to find any girl who's going to talk to me, much less love me? I asked. Maybe I hadn't exceeded my daily limit yet.

"Wouldn't it be better to know that at least you tried?" She looked at me hopefully.

"No," I answered simply.

"At least try," she pleaded.

"I'm only going to make a fool of myself." I could be incredibly stubborn when I wanted to be.

She raised her eyebrows. "You're being a coward."

I narrowed my eyes. That word bothered me somehow. Maybe it was because it made me seem weak and helpless and _not me_. Nobody had ever called me a coward before. I wasn't the cowardly type.

As I thought this, I began to feel anger. Aunt Mandy didn't know what it was like to have your life turned upside down! She had no right to call me a coward, especially since she was saying that because I didn't want to waste my time doing something pointless. But I wanted to prove her wrong. I wasn't a coward. _I_ knew that, but I didn't want anyone to think I was one. But my efforts would be so futile…

All I could do was try.

I sighed. "Fine."

Aunt Mandy brightened considerably. Well, at least I had found _one person _who cared about my well-being.

"I'm going to enroll you in school. You're going to have to face the public sometime." She paused, thinking. "But you can't be Nick anymore. People would be too freaked out. So you need a new name," she said.

I nodded. I guess there was no point in waiting. Prepare for total and utter public humiliation.

"Is there a certain name you'd want to go by?" Aunt Mandy asked, about to leave the room.

I blurted out the first word I could think of. "Fang."

**AN: Like I said, I'm really sorry for the boring chapter. I promise next chapter will be more exciting. First day back at school for our Nickykins! Gosh, it's so hard to stay upbeat. I still have Everything-I-write-is-crap-itis. Well, it's actually more like I-think-everything-I-write-is-crap-itis. But I'm pretty sure this chapter was crap. **

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: Urgh? *hands CNF a cookie***

**Me: Wait. Are you **_**offering me a cookie**_**? What happened to you?**

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: *looks hurt and runs out of the room***

**Me: *sigh* **

**Review? **


	15. Chapter 15

**AN: I don't like this chapter. It's quite boring, actually. But it's not total crap. I think I could've done better though. Thanks for all the reviews. I got 15 reviews for the last chapter! I love you people (in a non-creepy way because I'm not a creeper).**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride.**

Fang POV

High school. Some say it's hell. Others say that those are the best four years of your life. I used to be in the latter group of people. I had lots of friends and I could get any girl I wanted. My grades sucked, but I was passing—something I couldn't say for some of my friends. Or ex-friends, I suppose. No way in hell would they want to be friends with me , _I_ didn't want to be friends with myself either.

Nick: Hey Nick, you want to be friends with me?

Nick: Crap, it's some random ugly dude. *punch*

But I had to stop thinking of myself as Nick now. The name Nick belonged to an old life. A past life that I had left behind. Hopefully, I had only left it behind for a year, but I knew enough to know that it was most likely permanent. I was Fang now. A new person. Aunt Mandy had enrolled me in the high school under the name Fang Venom. She had told the school that I was her nephew whose parents had recently died in a car crash and that she had taken me in. My parents didn't know that I had gone to Aunt Mandy's house. They thought I had run away to someplace far, far away from home. They'd told Aunt Mandy about my running away, but she never told them where I really was. And as far as I can tell from what Aunt Mandy has told me they've said about me, I can't say they really care. Can't say I really care about them either.

I woke up and put on my once-usual ensemble of black clothing. I had usually worn black clothes all the time before high school, but when my popularity had skyrocketed, I had stopped. Now I was slipping back into my old habits. I was hoping that black would help me blend into the background. Somehow, I didn't think it would work.

I had barely taken anything with me when I had left home. Just my laptop, iPod, and some clothes. I had moved into my aunt's guest bedroom. There was a radio in there that was blaring Animal I Have Become by Three Days Grace.

I was beginning to have some serious doubts about this. What had I been thinking? I couldn't face regular people. Especially since some of them were my friends and definitely wouldn't want to be my friends anymore. Not even if I told them what had happened to me, which I wasn't going to do. I was just going to get locked up. Maybe I should just stay inside my room forever. I gulped. No way Aunt Mandy would let me back out now. Dammit.

"Aw, Nickypoo. Or is it Fangypoo now? Don't be so sad," a mocking voice came from behind me. I whirled around to see that Cassandra was sitting on my bed. She looked perfect, an obvious insult to my own appearance. She was smirking. I hadn't even heard her teleport here.

"What do you want?" I asked warily. I wanted to freaking _kill_ her for making me like this, but I knew that if I attacked her, she could do bad things to me. Like turn me into a human/wolf hybrid or something. Or even worse…a unicorn. I don't want to be a unicorn.

"I just want to wish you luck on your first day of school. What do you think I was here for? I'm certainly not here to do bad things to you," she said sarcastically. She played with my pillow, completely unconcerned with the fact that I wanted to kill her.

"Cut the crap, Cassandra. What do you want?" I asked bluntly.

"I just want to see how you're going to get a girl to fall in love with you in a year." Cassandra smirked.

"I wouldn't have that problem if you would just change me back," I hissed.

"I can't. Besides, I'm sure that with your _amazing_ personality, you'll find a girlfriend in _no time_." Her voice was heavily laced with sarcasm.

I just continued to glare at her.

"Oh, those girls you've dated don't like you for your _personality_, do they? The only like you for your looks." She said this as if it had just occurred to her. She smiled, displaying her stupid white teeth.

"Shut up, Cassandra," I said.

"Good luck with trying to find a girl to look past your flaws. I'll be keeping an eye on you." With those completely _un-clichéd_ words (note the sarcasm), she disappeared.

At first, I thought that there were no signs of her having been here at all, but when I approached the bed, where Cassandra had been sitting, I saw that there was a mirror in her place. The mirror that she had given me the night that I had been changed. I thought I had shoved it into a drawer or under the bed of my old house. Next to the mirror was the rose Cassandra had given me. Was Cassandra going to make these follow me around wherever I go? I assumed that it had been her who had made these things show up. Who else could it be?

I picked up the mirror, but didn't look at my reflection. There was no need to make myself even more nervous.

_Say Max's name_, a voice in my head urged. Great, there was a voice in my head now. Actually, it sounded quite a bit like Cassandra. Was she going to invade my mind now?

_I said I'd be watching you_, the voice said. I could almost hear Cassandra rolling her eyes, if that's possible. _Just say her name and then look in the mirror_.

I decided I had nothing to lose. "Maxine Martinez," I whispered, my eyes still averted from the mirror. Was something supposed to happen? Because I didn't feel anything happening. Finally, I decided to just look in the mirror. I expected to see my own reflection in it. Instead, I saw Max's bedroom. I know what it looked like because I had been in there countless times when we were still friends. Max was in the room. And she was changing.

I cussed and looked away quickly. Crap, she was wearing nothing but a bra and underwear. If Max was any other girl, I would have checked her out. But Max was so much more…innocent than other girls, even though she could probably kick my ass if she wanted to. She had next to no experience with guys, which made looking at her when she was half-naked seem so…immoral. That wasn't to say she didn't have a hot body. Damn those stupid hormones.

So I guess the mirror showed me who I wanted to see and what they were doing at the time. "John Callahan," I said. That was my father's name. When I looked back at the mirror, the image had changed. Now instead of Max's bedroom, I saw my parents. They were going through their daily routines and didn't seem to care that I had run away. I wasn't surprised.

"Nick, get downstairs!" Someone pounded on my bedroom door. It was Aunt Mandy. "You don't want to be late."

I sighed. "Call me Fang," I called back. I would have to experiment with the mirror some other time. I had to go to school now. As much as I used to hate school, I hated it even more now.

I went downstairs and ate breakfast quickly. Then I ran out the door. The school was walking distance away from Aunt Mandy's house, so I walked there. My parents had bought me a car and I had a license, but the car was currently sitting in their garage and the keys were in my old bedroom. I hadn't thought to grab them when I left. I had just walked to Aunt Mandy's house because I hadn't exactly wanted to alert my parents to the fact that I was leaving. And I wasn't going to break in to steal my car and keys now.

I got to the school just as the bell rang. I still had to go to the front office to get my schedule and I'd be late for class. But I had an excuse. There were still a few stragglers in the hallways, and I kept my head down to avoid eye contact with them. My hair covered much of my face, but a few people still got glimpses of it. Those people looked away quickly. Nobody wanted to see the ugly guy.

I went to the front office. The person at the desk was a woman who was playing Solitaire on the computer. I stood there, waiting for her to acknowledge my presence. Finally, she looked up from her game. As soon as she saw my face, her eyes widened and she backed away a little bit. Weren't adults supposed to "not show prejudice"? They always told _us_ to not be prejudiced.

"I'm Fang Venom. I'm here to get my schedule," I told her.

She continued to stare at me blankly. Finally, she blinked. "Here's your schedule." She handed me some papers then looked away, sounding relieved. She went back to her game of Solitaire. I left without saying thank-you.

I looked at my schedule. I had first period Biology. _This would be fun, _I thought sarcastically. I walked into room 307, which my schedule indicated was the room the class was in. It was a pretty loud class, but everyone stopped talking as soon as I walked in. The teacher, Mr. Harding, stopped giving his lecture. I had actually taken this class back when I was still Nick.

Everyone was just staring at me.

I used to love attention. Girls used to stare at me and say how hot I was. Back then, it was good attention. Now, it was anything but good. They were all looking at me, but it wasn't because I looked good. It was because they just wanted to look at the freak.

The teacher stopped staring at me after about 10 minutes. "Would you like to introduce yourself?" he asked. Apparently, he had been informed that a new student was coming.

"Fang Venom," I said. Short and simple. It was probably better not to talk too much.

Mr. Harding gestured to a seat in the back of the room. It was the only empty seat. Each table had two chairs, and I looked to see who had the misfortune of having to sit with me. I was shocked to see that it was…Max. She looked shocked too. It was obvious she recognized me, even though she had only seen the new me once. It wasn't easy to forget my face. I sat down next to her.

Max turned away from me immediately and ignored me. I decided to ignore her too and tried not to think about how I had seen her less than dressed earlier this morning. I was very aware of her presence next to me. Warmth radiated from her skin. She wasn't the same girl she was in middle school. Back then, she was average-looking. Now, she looked…

You know what? I think I'm just going to stop thinking about Max now.

Max was doodling in a notebook. Her hair formed a curtain around her face. She was wearing a baggy hoodie and jeans. I didn't see why she tried to hide her body. She had her hood up, and I could see that she was trying to hide the fact that she was listening to her iPod. I wonder what she was listening to. The teacher didn't notice that Max wasn't paying the least bit of attention to him. In fact, nobody was.

The teacher started calling roll. I zoned out until he said "Nick Callahan". Apparently, my parents hadn't even told the school that I wouldn't be going there anymore. I feel loved.

As soon as the teacher finished calling roll (marking "Nick" absent) and turned back to the board, people started whispering. The conversation seemed to mostly revolve about me. I was actually used to people talking about me. But usually they said good things—especially the girls. Now, it was the complete opposite. I could catch a few of their words. "Ugly freak" came up a lot. Everyone was making fun of me behind my back and it wouldn't be long before they were doing it to my face. I looked around. Crap, Lissa was in the class too. She was sitting at the table in front of me with one of her friends. She and her blonde friend were wearing identical short pink miniskirts.

Finally, Max stopped ignoring me. "What the hell are you doing here, Nick?" she asked, looking at me curiously. I saw that she had her hood down and that she had taken her earbuds out of her ears. A couple people heard Max talking to me and snickered. Good thing they couldn't hear _exactly_ what she said to me.

"It's Fang now," I replied.

"What are you trying to do, N—Fang?" she asked, glaring at me. Why was she glaring at me? I hadn't done anything to _her_. But I guess I should be happy she was talking to me at all.

"Now you believe me?' I asked raising my eyebrows. Max didn't answer.

Lissa suddenly turned around. "Oh look, Maxie's talking to the ugly freak," Lissa said venomously. I had known that my old friends would make fun of me, but it was still weird to hear Lissa refer to me as an "ugly freak" when she used to want me so badly.

Max face turned red with anger. "Not as ugly as you, bitch," she hissed.

Lissa didn't even look fazed. "Maybe you two should get together. He's the best you're gonna be able to get."

Max's eyes narrowed. "Shut the hell up, Lissa," she spat. She looked like she wanted to slap Lissa, but I grabbed her hand to hold her back. Luckily, she didn't start cussing at me.

Lissa smirked and turned to talk to her friend, ignoring Max again. Max took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. She pulled her hand out of my grip. Then she began to glare at the back of Lissa's head. She looked murderous.

This was going to be a long day.

**AN: Hehe, Three Days Grace is awesome. Next chapter will be the rest of Fnick's first day of school from mostly Max's POV—I think. And in it, you'll meet Iggy and Nudge. I'm going to try to post it on Thursday or Tuesday. **

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: *happily eating pizza***

**Me: He took my pizza…**

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: Urgh! *sticks tongue out at CNF***

**Review?**


	16. Chapter 16

**AN: Honestly, I hadn't been sure I would be able to update today. I have my finals in a week, so I have to do the reviews for them before I have to turn my textbooks in. If you read any of my other stories, updates might be slow for the next two weeks. It all depends on how much I actually want to study. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. If I did, Catherine Hardwicke wouldn't be able to go **_**near**_** the movie.**

Max POV

Biology had been as awkward as hell (was hell awkward?). I had refused to look at Nick/Fang/whatever his name was now. Actually, the name Fang fit him better than Nick. Of course, I had thought it was weird when he had told me that was his new name. Did he want to be a dog? A vampire? "Nick" was a generic name, a name given by parents who had no freaking imagination. It was the name of someone normal, ordinary. And now, he was anything _but_.

"Fang" suited him much better.

I could tell Fang wanted to talk to me, but I didn't give him the satisfaction of doing so. I had my iPod turned up high so that I could block the sounds of our teacher teaching and people talking out. All I heard was Evanescence, and no one bothered me. I glared at the back of Lissa's head, as if wanting to burn a whole through it. She was…was just such a _beeyotch_. It wouldn't be too hard to burn a hole through her head. She didn't have much in there anyway.

I could tell that I was the only one in the room who wasn't noticeably cringing away from Fang or making fun of him behind his back. Maybe I didn't try to keep away from him because I had already seen him before. Maybe it was because I didn't exactly have anyone to talk about the creepy new kid with.

I hadn't had a dream with the Nick/Fang look-alike (well, the boy _used _to look like him) last night. I should have been relieved. Maybe I had just been temporarily insane. And I _was_ relived. But I was also kind of disappointed. I felt a strange—definitely irrational—attraction to him. And I wanted to know why I had that dream. Was it just a random figment of my imagination? Or did it have some deeper, unknown meaning?

So did I believe Fang when he said that some witch changed him by magic? I believed there was no other explanation. So I believed him, sort of. He wasn't the only crazy one. I was the one who kept having visions where I was together with someone who looked exactly like Fang with wings, wasn't I?

Tell me that's not crazy.

When Fang wasn't looking at me, I snuck a glance at him. His hair hung over half his face and he was doodling on a piece of paper. I peeked at it, careful not to let him see me peeking. He was drawing a girl…with wings. It didn't seem like he was really paying attention to what he was drawing—his eyes weren't focused on the page. It seemed like his hand was moving without him really controlling the movements. The girl looked very, very familiar, but I couldn't tell who it was. And the _wings_.

Was it just a coincidence?

Suddenly, the bell rang, pulling me out of my thoughts.

I walked through my next few classes in a daze. I didn't pay attention in any of them. But then, I never did, so there wasn't a big difference.

I thought about why Fang had decided to come to school. Maybe he was trying to break the curse inflicted upon him, though it seemed—and probably was—impossible. Well, good luck with that, Fang. I wondered how he planned on going about doing that. Most girls would run away at first sight. I sighed in relief. Fang had already tried to kiss me, and since that hadn't turned him back, I was obviously not his one true love or whatever.

Finally, it was time for lunch. I had brought my lunch because I didn't want to have to deal with the crappy cafeteria food—I had once thrown up from eating the "mystery meat". I picked a table in one of the corners of the cafeteria and sat down. I took my lunch out of the brown paper bag and bit into the ham and cheese sandwich. I kept my eyes averted from everyone and nobody approached me.

Suddenly, someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around, almost hoping that it was Lissa so that I could punch her, something I hadn't been able to do in class.

Instead of Lissa, I saw a guy with strawberry blonde hair, around my age. His blue eyes were unfocused, and instead of looking at my face, he was staring at a spot two inches above the top of my head. I recognized him as James Griffiths, a junior who was blind. I had gone to school with him since kindergarten, but I had never talked to him before in my life.

"Can I sit here? Apparently your table's the only available one," he said. I looked around the lunchroom and saw that he was right. I guessed that he had asked people and they had told him to come to my table. He couldn't see.

I nodded and turned back to eating my sandwich. James sat at the end of the table opposite from me. He didn't make any effort to talk to me. I looked around the lunchroom, looking for someone—only out of curiosity, of course.

I found him on the other side of the cafeteria.

Fang POV

I hadn't seen Cassandra around all day, so I assumed that she had stopped coming to school. Her job was already done. Was she watching me now, invisible? She _was_ a witch, after all. I was just walking toward a random table in a cafeteria after getting my food, minding my own business, when a foot suddenly appeared in front of me, blocking my path.

I tripped over it and stumbled. I managed to catch myself before I could hit the tiled floor, but my tray went flying and my food went all over the floor. I swore under my breath.

I looked up to see who had tripped me. I saw Sam's smirking face looking down at me. Shit.

"Watch where you're going, freak," he said. By now, we had caught the attention of the whole lunchroom. Everyone was watching us intently. Right. As if I needed any _more_ attention.

I gave him the best glare I could, but considering that he was standing over me and I was on the floor, I don't think I pulled it off very well.

"And this is why people like you shouldn't try to go to school with the rest of us normal people," he said mockingly. I gritted my teeth, knowing that if I spoke, it would only make things worse.

A freshman girl whispered something to Sam angrily. The girl had frizzy dark brown hair and dark skin. I vaguely remembered her name…Monique? Yeah, Monique, that was it. She had hung out with our group, but was never fully in it. She was just too _nice_ to everyone. I had never really noticed her before. She was pretty, but didn't seem like the kind of girl I could fall in love with. For one thing, the girl talked nonstop (that was one of the few things I had noticed about her), which was almost completely impossible to endure.

Sam whispered something back at her, and it seemed like they were arguing about something. I walked off in the middle of their argument, and they didn't notice me. I walked away with as much dignity as I could muster—which wasn't much. The people who had been watching us turned away too.

I sighed. Might as well get used to my former friends mocking me. They hadn't really been my friends anyway. Well, at least not the kind that would stick with me through thick and thin. I wondered what Monique and Sam were arguing about. Me?

Now I was faced with another dilemma. Where was I supposed to sit? I looked around the cafeteria but saw no empty tables.

And then I saw Max. Her table wasn't very full—only two people who didn't seem to be talking to each other. I walked over to her table and sat down. I had heard that the boy at her table was blind or something. Max didn't even spare me a glance. She gave no sign that she had seen what happened, which was good because I had really looked like an idiot. But now I had no lunch. My stomach growled.

Suddenly, Max looked at me. "Welcome to the land of the unpopular people, Fang," she said.

**AN: I don't exactly know what I have planned for the next chapter. Hehe. **

**Me: Bob, which do you like better, pizza or cookies?**

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: Urgh!**

**Me: Bob, give me a straight answer.**

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: URGH!**

**Me: I have **_**got**_** to get a Zombie Language to English dictionary.**

**Review?**


	17. Author's Note

**AN: I'm so, so sorry, but this is just an A/N.**

**(If you started reading this story after I posted the 16****th**** chapter, kindly ignore this. Everyone else, you just need to read the last part of this author's note.)**

**I am so, so sorry this is just an author's note. I'm thinking about **_**deleting and re-posting**_** this story.**

**I feel that I rushed into this story with barely an inkling of what would happen in it. I didn't think a lot of things through and I'm just now discovering that as I think about what will happen in the plot. One of the examples would be Ella. I totally forgot to put her in (stupid me) and I'm trying to add her in now and it's just not working for me. If I change it, she'll just be Max's sister.**

**I can probably work around the plotholes, so if you really want me to continue the story as it is, tell me so. Heck, I want to continue the story as it is, but the Ella thing is bothering me. That's the biggest thing that's bothering me, but other little things are too.**

**I could just change Ella's role in this story without reposting it. How does that sound?**

**If you don't mind me deleting and reposting, you can put me on author alert to know when it's reposted or you can review telling me to PM you when I repost this.**

**There's a poll on my profile. Your choices are for me to delete and repost, continue the story as it is, or just change the story without deleting. I'm leaning toward the third option. I can tell you which chapters you need to reread and such. In fact, there's not much you have to reread anyway. I might just fix the Ella thing. If I delete and repost, I can fix some other things too.**

**Again, I'm really sorry and I hope you'll just bear with me through this.**

**P.S. I'm doing a Post-FANG oneshots contest. Details on my profile. Check it out. **

**6/17/10:**** I made the changes without deleting and reposting. (Whoa, my author's notes were more random than I thought they were) The changes don't matter that much at this point anyway. Stuff I changed: **

**1. Ella is Max's sister. I added her to chapter 2. She doesn't do much there, so you don't really have to reread it. She's like a platypus. They don't do much, you know. (Yep, that was a shameless reference to Phineas and Ferb. I am so dang awesome.)**

**2. You know Fang's ex-friend Cody? I changed his name to Sam (not the same Sam from Virginia because he would be a stalker) because I will most likely get mixed up again. The name thing is just so I don't get mixed up again.**

**3. Lissa is completely human. Not a witch. Okay? (Though she**_** is**_** a bitch…)**

**4. There is no project that they have to do. It was a crappy idea anyway.**

**5. The only chapters I made any real changes to are chapter 2 (I added Ella), 6 (I changed the flashback. Max and Fang didn't really kiss. Their lips brushed just barely before Max pulled away. That could still be counted as a kiss, but Maxie's in denial), and 16 (I changed the lunchroom scene and there's no project).**

**Anyway, this A/N is probably going down in a few days. But now that I think about it, I might just leave it up because so many of you have reviewed this that if I delete and add a new chapter, you'd have to log out and review the chapter anonymously. I don't know about you, but usually, that takes too long. Yeah, I don't know what I'm doing. (But then, I never know what I'm doing.) Um…on the bright side, I started writing the next chapter. **


	18. Chapter 17

**AN: Hey! I had surgery in my mouth so it hurts to eat cookies. Damn it. IF YOU STARTED READING THIS STORY BEFORE I POSTED CHAPTER 16 AND HAVEN'T READ THE SECOND HALF OF MY AUTHOR'S NOTE, READ IT NOW! If you started Nameless after I posted chapter 16, ignore the author's note. Sorry I had to capitalize that. I don't know how many people read my author's notes and it's important. This chapter is pretty short, but I think it will get the story going again. I have the rest of the story planned, WOOT! Updates might come faster because I finally know what I'm doing. There will be a lot of time skips because this story takes place over the course of a year. 12 months for Fangy to find true love. **

**Disclaimer-o: I don't own MR. **

Max POV

We had fallen into a sort of routine. Me, James, and Fang. It had been about a week since we had first started sitting together. We would sit down at our lunch table without uttering a word to each other. After a few days of people getting used to Fang's appearance, nobody ever bothered us. We were the outcasts, and freaking proud of it too! I would get to our table first. Then James, and then Fang. And there we would sit for the entire lunch period, even avoiding mere eye contact. James' clouded blue eyes never looked up from his lunch, or where he expected his lunch to be. He somehow found our lunch table every day without anyone's help. It made no sense because he was blind, but I had never asked him about how he found his way each day. As long as no one moved the lunch tables too much, he seemed to be able to find our table just fine.

I almost felt sorry for him. No one knew what to what to make of his blindness, so he was forced to sit with Fang and me, who nobody else wanted to be near. He was kind of cute, actually, with his strawberry blonde hair and winning smile. He was just different. He actually had some friends, all from his chemistry class. Cassandra hadn't come to school in days. I guess that supported what Fang had told me.

As for Fang, he and I sat as far from each other as possible. I was still mad at him for abandoning me before high school started for no apparent reason. Unless…he was mad at me for basically rejecting him when he had sort of kissed me at the beginning of that summer. But that couldn't be it, could it? He had already proven to me that he didn't care about me at all. And it had hurt, I had to admit that. I wasn't ready to forgive him, and apparently, he didn't want us to be friends with each other, anyway. He didn't even try to talk to me.

Today was like any other. Fang and I pointedly ignored each other. But something seemed wrong with James. He was frowning and would open his mouth occasionally as if to say something but would then close it immediately. I felt tension rolling off him in waves. No, not literally. It was just his body language. His back was stiff and his fists were clenched. But I decided to ignore it. Well, I did until he said something completely unexpectedly.

"Will you two start talking already?" he exclaimed in the middle of lunch. Both Fang and I looked at him in surprise.

"What do you mean?" I asked, feigning innocence. Out of habit—we always used to do this when we were younger—I looked at Fang as if to share a private joke. We used to do this because we could always read each other's expressions. Surprisingly, Fang had been glancing at me too. Our eyes met. We looked away from each other quickly in embarrassment.

"This table's always so _silent_. Can't you two be nice to each other?" James asked.

"James—" I began, but he cut me off.

"Iggy. All my friends call me Iggy."

"You have friends. Why do you even sit with us?" Fang asked Iggy, obviously trying to change the subject.

"Sometimes, they don't want the blind kind around," Iggy said bitterly. "And don't try to change the subject. You two have no reason to hate each other, but you still do." I wondered why Iggy would bring this up all of a sudden. But then I realized that the tension in the air was obvious and that anyone would feel uncomfortable with Fang's and my hostility toward each other.

"We're nice to each other," Fang mumbled, lying. He looked up and or eyes met again. This time, neither of us looked away immediately. I didn't focus on his other—er, less than handsome features, to say the least—and instead focused in on his dark eyes. There was something strangely familiar about those eyes. Familiar and comforting. They made me feel something strange, but I put that thought out of my head immediately.

"Why do you care?" I asked Iggy exasperatedly. I stabbed at my lunch with a fork. It was supposed to be lasagna—I think—but it looked like puke. I pushed the plate away, gagging. Fang looked on emotionlessly.

"Because I can practically feel the hostility rolling off you. It ruins my appetite. Even when I'm eating bacon. I didn't even know that was possible," Iggy said these words with a straight face. I whacked him upside the head. It wasn't a hard hit and was meant to be a joke, but Iggy clutched his head dramatically. "Oh, Max. How can you be so cruel?" he said in a fake wounded voice. I stuck my tongue out at him even though I knew he wouldn't be able to see. In spite of myself, I found that I enjoyed talking to Iggy. I didn't usually like the people at this school, but there was something about Iggy that made me want to open up to him. I used to feel the same way about Fang.

Speaking of Fang, I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. He was watching our exchange with his emotionless mask on. I always hated that face because I couldn't tell what he was thinking. But now, I could see an almost undetectable glimmer of amusement in his eyes.

"Would it hurt you two to smile at each other?" Iggy sighed. What a drama queen.

"We could be smiling at each other now and you would never know," I said.

"On the contrary, my dear. Iggy knows all," Iggy said in a fake British accent. His British accent made him sound like a pig with a cold. Not pretty. My lips almost curved into a smile, which would be the first in a while, especially here at school. I just had too many enemies here. Speaking of which, one of them was as sitting at this table now. I glared pointedly at Fang. I decided that I kind of liked Iggy. He didn't discriminate against Fang because of his looks. He couldn't even see him. Of course, he had probably heard people talking about Fang, but he didn't seem to care.

"Fine," said Fang, sighing. Note that most of the things he had said at lunch today were one-word sentences. Can "Fine" even be considered a sentence? This would be…interesting. Ever since Fang had changed (for lack of a better word), he seemed to be reverting back to the old habits he had before ninth grade. He didn't talk, remained about as emotional as a statue, and wore only black. And he never smiled. But that might just be because of his current situation.

Fang's mouth turned up at the corners, like he was trying to smile, but it turned into more of a grimace. I was tempted to smile again. That was twice in less than ten minutes! What was happening to me? The expression on his face was just so…funny. He looked like he had just eaten something sour. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't hold back a smile. As soon as I realized I was smiling, I looked down immediately. But Fang had caught my quick smile.

"Why are you smiling?" he asked me with a confused look on his face.

I mumbled, "Your face," under my breath. I sounded ridiculously like one of those people who answered everything with "your face". Fang glared at me and then resumed stabbing his puke-lasagna.

"You don't need to make fun of my attempt at a smile, Max. I don't see _you_ smiling either," Fang said, glaring at me.

"Emo," I muttered.

"What did you say?"

"I think Maxie's saying you're emo," Iggy said while stuffing his sandwich into his mouth. Darn, he didn't have to deal with the crappy cafeteria food. "That's not very nice, Max," Iggy said disapprovingly. "Poor Fang doesn't need to be reminded that he's emo constantly. It might make him start cutting himself." I wondered if I should slap Iggy for calling me Maxie.

Fang didn't even try to deny being emo because he knew his attempts would be futile. After that short conversation, we lapsed into silence again, but this time a more comfortable one than before. Iggy had a satisfied smirk on his face. That had been his goal, after all—to get Fang and me to talk to each other. Maybe not totally avoiding other people wouldn't be so bad. Maybe I could even become friends with Iggy. Maybe friendship didn't always lead to hurt and betrayal.

Yeah, _right_.

Fang and I were far from being friends. But at least today, some of the tension and hostility between us was eased. I would never forgive him for abandoning me, but maybe we were on our way to a sort of understanding.

And it was all thanks to Iggy.

Who didn't even know that Fang was Nick.

Great.

**AN: Been rereading Diary of a Lovesick Mutant. You can probably tell. Haha. Not my best, I know.** ** I probably could've done better, but I just want to get this story going again. Most people have stories where girls are all over Iggy because he's blind, so I wanted to try something different. Hope you don't mind. **** Next chapter will be longer, I think. Blech, I want to get to the part where they're friends so bad, but I have to go through the boring stuff first. **

**Me: *looks at cookies with sad look on face***

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: *eats cookies without a care in the world***

**Me: I wish I could eat cookies…**

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: Urgh. (Translation: Who cares?)**

**Me: *whacks Bob with cookie***

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: *unconscious***

**Please, please, please review?**


	19. Chapter 18

**AN: Well, thanks for the reviews, people. You've made me feel so guilty that I haven't updated in a while. ****Thanks to kiki1607 and Midge 1012 for catching my mistake last chapter. I felt really stupid afterward. Well, I'm going to make up for my lack of updates with a long chapter. I'm going to try to update at least twice a month from now on. Hopefully, I'm going to be able to do that. This is my excuse for not updating: I've been too addicted to writing my parody of Catching Fire (second Hunger Games book). I get ideas for that really easily. So, um…this story is going to have a lot of time skips because it's supposed to take place over the course of a year. And because I don't know what else to write for Fang's first month of being stuck like this. Okay, remember that Ella knows what happened to Max (the memory erasing thing) and Jeb has told her and her mom what happened to Fang (even though I didn't show that in here—just know that it happened). Enjoy!**

Dr. Jeffrey Monteray was not a happy man. But then, he was seldom happy. One who schemes evilly is not generally a happy person. Well, unless one of their evil schemes works. Not something he had experienced yet.

Jeffrey Monteray was a man who always wanted _more_.

And he had the brains and willpower to get it too.

When the Itex branches had been destroyed by a bunch of kids (the doctor scoffed at this; Itex had been weak enough to get destroyed by mere children), he knew that Itex and all the remaining scientists at the School had gone good for some inexplicable reason. And that meant all his plans for world domination (because who doesn't want to rule the world?) would fail. Doing good was for cowards. That was what the scientists at the School had become—a bunch of cowards. So he decided to take matters into his own hands. The Flock was meant to save the world. If they were dead…

Well, let's just say he would be a very happy man.

He had given his daughter Lissa the job of killing Fang. Now, to an outsider, that may seem like a strange decision. But from a young age, Lissa had been trained to kill. Her father had thought that it was a good idea because he was someone who might need people killed in the future. Not that Lissa ever flaunted her abilities. To everyone else, she was just a ditzy redhead.

Dr. Monteray remembered the conversation he'd had with Jeb. Jeb didn't know about his plans. He was one of the "good guys". The ones who thought that this was just a harmless experiment that would give the flock a normal life for a bit as a bonus too. What Jeb had told him certainly made Dr. Monteray's plans a bit harder.

He picked up his cell phone and called his daughter. She picked up immediately. "What's wrong with Fang?" Lissa barked into the phone.

He decided to ignore his daughter's demanding tone and just get on with the explanation. "You know that study Itex did on people who may have magical abilities?"

Lissa vaguely remembered a study her father had told her about. Apparently, some people had the ability to harness energy and use it as what they claimed to be magic. Her father had tried to explain to her the details of it but she hadn't really paid attention. He had said that magic was just another form of energy, as they had discovered with their test subjects. Lissa, who had grown up as the daughter of a scientist who worked for Itex, had seen a lot of strange things in the 16-year-old lifetime—least of all kids with wings. She knew that she either had to accept what her dad was telling her or be stuck not knowing anything at all.

Lissa nodded, and then realized that her father couldn't see her. "Yeah," she said.

Dr. Monteray proceeded to tell her what Jeb had told him. Someone with magical abilities had turned Fang ugly for some reason they couldn't explain. He didn't know what Cassandra said Fang had to do to turn himself back or why she had done it. He only knew what Jeb knew, which wasn't much.

After she had finished her conversation with her father and had hung up, Lissa was baffled. This would complicate her plans. "Well, this stinks," Lissa said to herself.

Oh boy, was _that _an understatement.

Cassandra POV

I watched their lunch table from a corner of the cafeteria with narrowed eyes. Max seemed to be warming up to Iggy just fine, but she barely talked to Fang. At all. Still, I guess it was better than when he had been completely ignoring him. Luckily, Iggy had gotten them over that. But at this rate, it would take forever for them just to become friends again. Someone approached the corner I was sitting in and I tensed automatically, until I realized that I was invisible. I relaxed and looked to see who it was. With surprise, I realized that it was Lissa. She had a phone in her hand—she had obviously come to this corner to get some privacy. She kept glancing around her nervously while listening to whoever she was talking to. Lissa kept her voice low so I couldn't hear her. By the time I remembered a spell that would enhance my hearing, she had already hung up.

"Well, this stinks," she mumbled to herself. Then she walked back to her table. I dismissed her conversation as something that wasn't important at all. Knowing Lissa, she had probably just had a conversation about a shopping trip she was planning.

Joy.

I turned my eyes back to Fang's table. I wondered why I was still watching him. I didn't really _have_ to. But I guess I really was curious as to how this would turn out. It was like Beauty and the Beast…sort of.

I walked toward Fang's table. Time to do a bit of close-up spying. Iggy was saying something to Max, who was smiling a bit. Fang tried to look nonchalant, but the glares he was shooting at Iggy every few seconds suggested the complete opposite of nonchalance. I could tell that he would do anything to be in Iggy's shoes right then. To have Max talk to him without glaring at him—still mad at him for something he had done two years ago. The problem with Max was that she held a grudge too long.

Though she hadn't killed Fang yet for sitting at the same lunch table as her. And that was an achievement.

Fang looked miserable, with no idea what to do about his predicament. I almost felt sorry for him. But he deserved it. He was looking around the cafeteria, looking at girls, wondering if any of them would be able to break the curse. Well, he'd have to get off his butt and _talk_ to one first. He had less than a year. And the time could go by in the blink of an eye. Maybe I could help him out.

Just a little bit

Max POV (Lunch, Same Day)

"…so then I rigged a stink bomb in the boy's bathroom and when Roland came out, he smelled like he had just had a run-in with a very mad skunk," Iggy said. He was describing what he had done to someone who been teasing him about being blind. I remembered that there _had_ been an incident with a stink bomb at the beginning of the year, but nobody knew who had made it and set it up. Apparently, it had been Iggy.

"You can make bombs?" I asked skeptically. It was hard to imagine a blind guy making bombs.

Iggy nodded. "Just because I'm blind doesn't mean I'm useless."

"Sorry," I mumbled.

"It's okay. Nobody ever takes me seriously. Which is why no one ever suspects me. It's awesome," Iggy said excitedly.

"You know who you really _should_ make a bomb blow up on?" I said, an idea beginning to take form in my head.

"Fang, in the hopes that he'll thank us profusely and stop being so silent?" Iggy joked. Fang glared at Iggy, but it had no effect on him.

"No. Lissa," I said, grinning. I looked across the cafeteria and saw Lissa sitting at a table surrounded by her entourage. Fang used to be one of them, back when he was Nick. I looked at him to see what his reaction was. He looked emotionless, but there was just a hint of…something in his eyes. Was he mad at me?

"What do you think, Fang?" I asked in a mocking voice. Stupid Fang probably didn't want us to hurt his stupid ex-girlfriend who he had been stupid enough to make out with. Stupid!

And I really need to stop saying "stupid", don't I?

Fang glared at me, as if to say "shut up".

I just glared right back. _What? Do you still like Lissa?_

We could read each other so well that we could practically have a silent conversation. Which was great because Iggy wouldn't understand what we were talking about anyway. As far as he knew, Fang had never dated Lissa.

_It's not like that_, Fang's eyes seemed to say.

_Oh, really?_ I raised an eyebrow.

_Do whatever you want to Lissa. See if I care. _At least, I _hoped_ that was what his eyes were saying. Not "OMG. Lissa is so beautiful."

Iggy fake-coughed. "I know you two are probably gazing lovingly into each other's eyes and probably don't want me to interrupt your moment, but it would be nice to clue me in."

I blushed profusely, then looked away from Fang's eyes to see that Lissa was glaring at us. Had she heard what we had been talking about? After a few minutes, she looked away.

"We're not gazing at each other lovingly," Fang protested, and I turned my attention back to our table. I nodded, agreeing with Fang, until I realized that Iggy wouldn't be able to see me. It would take me a while to get used to that.

"We're not," I said.

Iggy ignored our protests. "Do you want a bomb that will give her a permanent injury or just scare her?" he asked us.

"As much as I'd like to give her a permanent injury, let's just scare her," I said.

"What do you think, Fang?" Iggy asked.

Fang shrugged, probably not wanting to get involved in this scheme. I wondered if he still had feelings for her. I tightened my grip on my fork. The idea that Fang might still like Lissa made my blood boil. Though, knowing him, he probably still liked her. Even if it was just because she put out.

After a few minutes, Iggy realized that Fang wasn't going to answer. Not that it should be any surprise to him. He wasn't exactly the talkative type, was he?

"Max, why do _you_ hate Lissa?" Iggy asked me.

I froze. I knew _exactly_ why I hated Lissa, of course. But I wasn't going to tell anyone. Saying, "She stole my best friend away from me," while said ex-best friend was sitting right there wasn't exactly a great idea. _Especially_ when you were trying to make him think that you didn't care one bit about your lost friendship. Especially when you know that he knows exactly why you hate Lissa so much because he can read you like a book. Fang smirked, because he _knew_. I wanted to wipe that smirk off his face. Preferably in a violent way.

"I just don't like her," I replied. "Why did you agree to it? What did Lissa do to _you_?" I asked Iggy. I knew that most people wouldn't agree to this unless the person had done something to them.

Iggy sighed. "She told her boyfriend, I think his name was Nick or something, to put spiders in my locker. I couldn't see what they were. When I opened my locker, they crawled all over me. They thought it would be funny to do that to the blind kid."

I tensed and glanced at Fang. His eyes widened and he was clutching his tray so tightly that his knuckles were white. He wouldn't meet my eyes. That was great. Just when I was starting to hate him a bit less (emphasis on "a bit"), I was reminded of why I hated him so much in the first place. Iggy didn't notice anything, so I just continued glaring at Fang. It was like he could feel me glaring at him because he finally looked up. There was shame in his eyes. Good.

"I'm sorry," he mouthed at me.

"Tell that to Iggy," I mouthed back, even though I knew he definitely couldn't.

The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Iggy stood up. "Bye, Max. Bye, Fang," he said cheerfully. I envied his ability to stay happy so well. I began to get up to go to class as well, but before I could, a sweaty hand closed around my wrist. _Gross,_ I thought. I turned around to yell at Fang, but the look in his eyes stopped me. He looked so hopeless, somehow, so desperate.

"I need to talk to you," he whispered urgently.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine." Fang looked surprised, as if he really hadn't expected me to agree. Heck, if you had asked me if I would agree a few minutes ago, I would've said no—but I was curious and he looked like he _really_ wanted to talk to me. He gestured toward an empty classroom—apparently, he wanted to talk in private. A few people who saw us snickered. I stood outside the classroom, refusing to go in. I actually didn't really care where we talked. I just wanted to annoy Fang. When we had been friends, I used to list it as one of my hobbies. Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. He looked around to make sure that no one was close enough to hear us.

"I need your help," he whispered. He looked uncomfortable at having to ask for my help. Hell _yeah_, he should.

"With what?" I hissed.

"Breaking the curse."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Look, Fang. You already tried kissing me. Against my will. What more do you want?"

Fang looked even more awkward that before, if that was possible. He mumbled something unintelligible, not making eye contact with me.

"What?" I demanded.

"I need you to help me find a girl," he muttered.

"I think you're under the impression that I give a damn about what happens to you," I said coldly.

"Please. I don't want to stay like this," he pleaded. And to be honest, it probably would have worked once. Back when Fang had been Nick and I was still mad about his betrayal. Back when I would do anything to make us friends again. To make myself believe that he still cared about me.

Not anymore.

"I'm not going to help you find a girl to kiss just so you can forget about her afterward!" I yelled at him. He glared, telling me to keep the noise level down. "You deserve it," I whispered venomously.

"But I've changed!" he protested.

"You have?" I asked sarcastically.

"I turned ugly. I've learned my lesson. Don't be a materialistic jackass. Now I just want to turn back. And I need you to help me." Wow, he sounded really desperate now.

I sighed. "I thought the whole point of this was to help you find 'true love'. A girl who loves you for you, not your looks or your money."

"But I _am_ trying to look for a girl like that."

I looked at him. _Really _looked at him, taking all of his features in. He used to be so, well, hot. Now, he wasn't winning any girl's heart anytime soon. Looking at him made me feel a bit nauseous, actually (the smell didn't help either—did deodorant work on him?), but that was the point. "If you really are willing to find someone who may not be the prettiest girl in the bunch and who really loves you, look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn't go back to Lissa and those kinds of girls if you were given the chance." Notice how I don't use the word 'slut' or 'prostitute'? I'm practically oozing maturity.

He opened his mouth, as if to speak, but then closed it again abruptly. He tried speaking again, but it seemed he couldn't say the words. He couldn't lie to me while looking me in the eye because I would _know_ if he was lying. There had been a part of me—a tiny part, but it was there—that had hoped Fang would deny these accusations. Fang's silence crushed that part totally and completely.

"Didn't think so," I said venomously.

"I just really need your help," Fang begged. "Maybe if you were with me, more girls would be willing to talk to me when they see that I actually have friends. Just please, for the sake of our old friendship."

I pretended to consider it for a moment. "No," I said with finality.

"But—"

"When will you understand I don't care about you?" I asked. His eyes widened at the ice in my voice.

I walked away, trying to convince myself that what I said was true, that I really didn't care about him.

I think I succeeded.

I _hope _I succeeded.

Lissa POV

Was it even worth it?

I looked at Fang from across the cafeteria. Now that his appearance had changed and he wasn't the guy every girl wanted anymore, was it even worth it to kill him? Did he deserve to be killed? I knew that my father would _want _me to kill him, but should I? I decided to just wait. I would do nothing for now.

Max POV (After School)

As soon as I got home, Ella practically attacked me. "I saw you sitting with Iggy and Fang today," she said.

I gave her a _look_, thinking that she didn't like it because Fang and Iggy weren't the most popular people around. "So what?"

"I think it's nice that you have friends now," Ella said brightly.

"They're not my friends," I argued.

"Oh, just because Nick practically ditched you a long time ago doesn't mean that you can't have friends now."

"What great advice," I said sarcastically, making my way to my room.

"Iggy's cute. Can you introduce me?"

I sighed. "Introduce yourself."

"Max, you're not _ugly_. I wish you would let me give you a makeover," Ella said.

"No." Seemed like I was saying that a lot today.

"Please?" she asked.

"I don't want a makeover."

"If you would just let me put makeup on you, you could have guys falling all over you."

"Ella, you know me. Am I the type to want guys falling all over me?" I asked exasperatedly.

"Well, then, admit that you need friends, Max. Besides, Fang is—" she stopped abruptly, her eyes widening. She looked like she had just said something that she wasn't supposed to say—wide-eyed and guilty. She smiled, as if hoping that would cover her mistake.

"Fang is what?" I asked.

"Um…nothing," she mumbled.

"You're a really bad liar, Ella," I said. "Do you know something I don't?" I asked suspiciously.

Ella looked down at her watch suddenly. "Oh, look at the time! I have to help Monique with something," she said, still smiling a fake smile. She then proceeded to run out the front door, presumably to go to a friend's house. She had obviously done that just to avoid answering my question.

Ella was hiding something from me, and I was determined to find out what.

Fang POV (Two Weeks Later, sometime late at night)

After my fail attempt to get Max to help me two weeks ago, she seemed colder than usual toward me. She didn't completely ignore me, which was better than how she was treating me earlier, but she didn't like me being there either. She was mad at me because I didn't deny it when she had said that I would go back to Lissa if I could. And it was true. I didn't care what kind of girl broke the curse; I just wanted to go back to how I had looked like only a few weeks before. Besides, Lissa was hot. I was a teenage boy. Get the picture? I didn't see why doing this to me would make me realize that looks weren't important—the lesson Cassandra obviously wanted me to learn because she wanted me to find someone who was willing to look past my looks. If anything, I realized that looks were even _more_ important than I thought they were. People just don't take you seriously when you look like I did now.

I guess I would have to do this on my own then. But how? I was too scared to even _talk_ to a girl—other than Max. So call me a coward. You'd probably act like that in my situation too. I was just afraid to hear an inevitable, unavoidable rejection.

Suddenly, I noticed last year's yearbook sitting on my cluttered desk. I had been looking through it a few weeks ago, before all of this crap happened. I looked back at my dresser. The mirror Cassandra had given me was sitting on top of it. I had an idea. I grabbed the mirror and the yearbook and sat down on my bed. I started flipping through the pages, stopping on a random page. I picked a random okay-looking girl off the page and said her name into the mirror.

Marcie Adams. A brunette who was in her room listening to music that was blasting out of her radio. I couldn't hear anything—the images in the mirror didn't come with sound, but I could see her singing along to the Justin Bieber song. I cringed then picked another random girl.

Cindy Chao. An Asian girl who was rollerblading with her friends. I watched her for a few minutes then moved on to the next girl.

Amanda Sanders. A tall redhead who was stabbing a copy of Twilight with a fork. Next.

Isabelle Laurence. A pretty girl with waist-length black hair and pale skin who was watching old CSI reruns in her living room.

Melissa Greenwood. A petite African-American girl who was at a party I probably would have been invited to if I still looked like I did before.

I looked at a lot of other girls too (wow, that sounds wrong). I didn't really know why I was doing this. Maybe I was hoping I would find a girl who I felt could fall in love with me. Maybe when I saw her, a choir would start singing and I would know right away that she was "The One". That would spare me the torture of actually trying to decide who was best for me.

Of course, this is reality, and no such thing happened.

And then I got to Max. She was sitting on her bed, reading a book. Her brown hair fell like a curtain around her face, brushing the pages of her book. Her eyes traveled the pages of the book hungrily, reading quickly. She was smiling, something I hadn't seen in a while. She looked relaxed, more open than she looked with other people around. She was wearing a tank top that hugged her curves and pajama bottoms. Her smile was just…wow. Max's smile made me smile a bit too. Seeing her happy somehow made me happy. While I had only looked at the other girls for a few minutes each, I stared at Max for at least 45 minutes, never getting bored. That was strange because she wasn't even doing anything interesting—just reading. But watching Max smile and look…less tough like that made me grin. It made me feel hope that maybe we could be friends again.

I wonder what this means, if it means anything.

At about midnight, Max decided to go to bed. She turned off the light in her room and lay down. Since I wasn't going to watch Max sleep, I decided to go to bed myself.

When I turned around, the rose that Cassandra had given me was sitting on my bed. It hadn't been there before. The rose was a deep blood red and had twelve large petals—one for each month of the year, maybe.

Right before my eyes, a petal of the rose fell off and drifted slowly to the floor.

**AN: Um…one of my longest chapters yet, so I **_**hope**_** I get a lot of reviews. I don't really like the chapter very much. It was okay. :P Fangypoo has…11 months left! Woot! Do you think I should have less time skips? BookHunter and I are writing a parody of FANG together (Thank you, Gmail Chat). She's posting it sometime today (it's going to be posted on her profile), so read it when she **_**does **_**post it!** **I think it's going to be called Molar: A Fang Parody.**

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: *draws all over magazine with Justin Bieber pictures***

**Me: Bob, help me do the A/N!**

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: Urgh… *looks up for a minute, then continues to draw a mustache on Justine***

**Me: *sigh* I wanna give him pink hair…**

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: Urgh! (translation: Well, hurry up and get over here or I'll give him pink hair myself!)**

**Me: Okay! **

**Review?**


	20. Chapter 19

**AN: I loathe this chapter. I think Max and Fang were really OOC. But I rewrote it about three times and this was the best version. If it's that bad, I'll rewrite it, I guess. This takes place right after the last chapter. Thank you _so_ much for all the reviews! I have over 300 reviews now. If that's not awesome, I don't know what is. And now a special message…dun dun DUN…**

**majorfaxandfanglover123: Yep, you got it! I was beginning to wonder when someone would get it. This story is based off Beastly by Alex Flinn. Well, not really, there are a ton of differences, but I did get the original idea from reading it. I don't think I'll take that much from it though. The last time I read it was more than a year ago. But I took the yearbook and mirror thing from that. **

Fang POV

Midnight. The numbers on the clock next to my bed blinked at me accusingly, taunting me. This was bad. Very bad. I had let a month go by without doing anything. Time really did go by more quickly than I thought it would. How quickly would the rest of the time go by?

Time was running out. I would do anything to break the curse, but I had no idea what to do. But somehow, I knew one thing. I had to get on Max's good side. I didn't know why I felt like I needed her, I just knew I wanted her as a friend again. I just needed a friend right now, and I needed Max to forgive me for what I had done.

I shouldn't have done what I did, even if I hated to admit it. I had just been so mad after Max had rejected me; I hadn't known what to do. I had loved her. Maybe not been _in_ love with her, but I had definitely loved her. _Had_. And I wasn't about to fall in love with her again. I just wanted her as a friend.

At least, that's what I told myself.

Max POV (Next Day)

"What did you do?" I asked Iggy, seeing the wicked smile on his face. He had tapped me on the shoulder in the hallway to get my attention and now we were talking near his locker. It was after school, so we didn't have any classes to worry about getting to. He had a mischievous smile on his face and looked like he would start rubbing his hands together evilly if not for the fact that it would be too plain weird. I could tell he had done something because he had the same look on his face people who wanted to take over the world got whenever they succeeded in one of their schemes. Not that I had ever experienced that firsthand. But it was always like that in the movies. Iggy had the same look in his eyes as one of those people. He was up to something. I didn't know whether to be scared or not.

"What makes you think I did anything?" Iggy asked in his "innocent voice".

"Because you have that look," I said simply.

"You know that bomb you wanted to blow up on Lissa?" Iggy asked. His hands were twitching like he was itching to rub them together.

"I thought you had forgotten about that," I said. Honestly, I had. I thought that we had just been joking around. But he hadn't forgotten. And that was freaking awesome.

"Lissa always goes to her locker after school to fix her makeup because she has a mirror there. I don't know why she doesn't just use the bathroom, but I guess her locker's closer. As soon as she opens her locker, she's going to be very pissed," he said evilly. And now he really _did_ rub his hands together, looking for all the world like a teenage mad scientist with a scheme. And maybe that _was_ what he was. How many other teenagers did I know who knew how to make bombs? That should totally qualify him for the title of "mad scientist".

"Is the bomb going to blow up the school?" I asked, only half-joking. No more school. What fun. If only there was a way for someone to get away with that knowing for sure that he or she wouldn't get caught.

Iggy sighed dramatically. "Unfortunately, no."

"That stinks."

Iggy perked up immediately. "_Lissa's_ going to stink. Literally." He began walking toward Lissa's locker, which was in the hallway adjacent to his. I didn't know how he knew where it was—being blind and all—so I just decided not to ask. I followed him. Lissa wasn't there yet. I had no doubt that Lissa's locker contained much more beauty supplies that actual supplies for _school_. Because there was as much possibility of Lissa studying as kids with wings.

"Is she there yet?" Iggy asked me, since he couldn't see for himself.

"No," I replied.

"Huh. She's late. She's usually at her locker by now," Iggy said, almost to himself. "When she opens her locker, she's in for a big surprise." Iggy didn't elaborate but it was easy to guess what he had planned. He had said that Lissa was going to stink, so I guess he had set up a stink bomb. Either that or he had placed a skunk in Lissa's locker. Right then, I saw Lissa walking down the hall to her locker. Iggy pulled me around a corner, so we would be outside of Lissa's line of vision. Lissa stopped at her locker, but just as she was about to open it, one of her equally ditzy friends started talking to her.

"She's talking to her friend," I said for Iggy's benefit.

"Open your damn locker already," Iggy said under his breath, as if doing so would bring Lissa to do what he wanted her to do. Of course it wouldn't, but it wouldn't hurt to try.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I spun around only to see that Fang had come up to me without making a sound, so I hadn't noticed. How the hell had he done that? He was like a ninja. Except not as badass.

"What are you doing here?" I snapped. I admit it, when he had denied my accusations two weeks ago, I had been disappointed. But it shouldn't have surprised me. He hadn't changed.

"Relax, Max. He was the one who gave me Lissa's locker combination," Iggy said. "I'm going to get closer, so I can hear it when it happens." Iggy moved a few feet away from Fang and me. I waited until he was out of earshot.

I looked at Fang. "I thought you didn't want to have anything to do with this," I accused. I thought he was still in love with that bitch. Well, not in love. He had probably never been "in love" with her. More like infatuated.

He shrugged. "I told you. I changed." But he wouldn't meet my eyes.

"You're lying," I said bluntly, trying to keep all emotion out of my voice.

"How would you know?" he asked.

I rolled my eyes. "You're mumbling and you're not looking me in the eye. There's practically a sign over your head saying 'I'm lying'," I said.

"Max—"

But Fang was interrupted by a fairly loud _boom_. It came from the direction of Lissa's locker. Fortunately, no teachers were in the hallway or in the classrooms near Lissa's locker—they were all in some meeting, I think. Iggy had timed it well. I swore under my breath. I had missed the moment when Lissa had opened her locker and the stink bomb had blown up in her face. Because there was no doubt that it was a stink bomb. I could smell it from here. It was Fang's fault that I had missed it! The reason I had missed it was because I had been arguing with Fang. Therefore, it was all his fault. Wow, I really liked blaming him.

I ran to get closer to Lissa's locker to get a better view, telling myself that I would continue my conversation with Fang later—if _he _wanted to continue it, I mean. I thought I had made it clear that I didn't care about him before, but I guess not. And maybe…I can't believe I'm thinking this…but maybe it would be better to just forgive him. It _was_ two years ago, and he was really trying. I knew our last conversation wasn't the end of it. Fang was pretty damn stubborn. So was I. That was why we had used to be friends. We thought the same. But I pushed that thought out of my head. I would _make_ myself stop caring about him. Oh, dammit, that implies that I do care about him now. Not true! I knew we would have to talk eventually, but I wanted to put it off as long as possible. Ideally, forever.

Lissa was standing in front of her locker with a crowd of students surrounding her. She was still facing her locker so I couldn't see her face. I ran to stand next to Iggy and I could hear Fang behind me. "I rigged it so that as soon as Lissa opened her locker, it would go off. It wasn't a big bomb. It didn't hurt her, anyway. Well, I don't _think _it did," Iggy whispered so that no one else could hear.

That was when Lissa decided to turn around. She smelled like crap. Literally. Her face was a deep red. I didn't know whether that was from anger or embarrassment or a mixture of both. She was stiff and her hands were clenched into fists at her sides. She was glaring at everyone in her line of vision.

All in all, she looked pretty dang mad.

I covered my mouth to stifle a giggle. I didn't want her to get suspicious of me. Most students had already gone home, but there was still a pretty good crowd around Lissa. Everyone was silent and all eyes were on her as they awaited her next move.

"Who did this?" she demanded, shrieking. She glared at each person in the hallway individually, meeting their eyes as if by doing that, she would be able to tell who had planted the stink bomb.

"Was it you?" she yelled hysterically, pointing at a tiny freshman who shook his head frantically. "You?" she spun around. "You?" With each "you", she glared at a different person. And then she looked at me. "Was it _you_, Maxie?" she hissed poisonously.

I gave her my best innocent look. "I can't make a bomb, remember?" She glared at me one last time, and then moved on to accusing someone else. Iggy was right. Lissa hadn't even considered that Iggy had been the one to do it because she was blind.

"Come on, let's get out of here before someone who knows I make bombs tells Lissa," Iggy whispered into my ear. I nodded and Fang, Iggy, and I walked outside. We were becoming the Three Freaking Musketeers, weren't we? Note the sarcasm. We were standing near the flagpole in front of the school when I just couldn't hold back my laughter. I doubled over laughing, which caused Iggy to start laughing too. Even Fang smiled a bit.

"Did…you…see…the…look…on…her…face?" I managed to say in between my laughter.

"I wish I could've seen it…" Iggy said wistfully.

Suddenly, Iggy's phone rang. He listened for a few minutes then hung up, making a face. "My mom's here to pick me up. Dang it, I wish I could drive."

I laughed. "Bye, Iggy." Fang didn't say anything and just nodded at Iggy. Iggy must be getting used to Fang's aversion to talking by now. A car pulled up and Iggy got into it. Nobody was standing near us, so I decided that it would be safe to talk to Fang.

I turned to him. Might as well get this over with. "What did you want to tell me earlier?"

Fang sighed. "I guess I can't lie to you and pretend that I've changed completely."

"You got that right," I said, admittedly, a bit cockily.

"Do you expect me to be able to change in just a few weeks?" he asked, suddenly sounding very tired.

"Well, no," I admitted. What was he trying to get at? Was he trying to apologize for not denying my accusations earlier? Because if he was, he was doing a crappy job of it. I mean, he had basically just admitted that my accusations were true.

"I'd like to change, but I feel like I can't unless you're my friend again," he said quickly, as if to get it over with. This was a lot of talking for him. It was kind of weird.

"Why?" I asked bluntly.

He shifted his weight from his left foot to his right foot and back again. Then he ran a hand through his hair. It was obvious he was nervous and uncomfortable. "Well, for one thing, I need your help. And for another thing, this whole problem started because we stopped being friends. I became an ass after that happened. I dunno, it just feels like becoming friends with you again is necessary," he mumbled. For Fang, this was probably a huge speech because he rarely said more than three words in a row.

"Um…so you want to become friends with me again because it _feels right_?" I asked, just to make sure. It sounded strange, but that was kind of how I felt too. I wanted to hate him, I knew I should, but I _didn't_.

"I know it sounds stupid, but I'm sorry, okay?" he looked up and met my eyes. There was discomfort and embarrassment in his eyes, but underneath all of that, there was also stubbornness. He wasn't going to give up soon. "I'm sorry for being a jerk to you. I'm sorry we're not friends anymore. And I'm sorry that I can't change my whole personality in a little more than a month. I'm just freaking sorry. Can't you accept my apology?" he asked, the volume of his voice gradually rising with every sentence. He sounded kind of angry and frustrated now. Frustrated that I wouldn't listen to him.

I shook my head. "You're wrong," I said.

He looked at me with a genuinely surprised look on his face. I didn't blame him. I didn't know what I was talking about either. I hadn't planned on saying anything. It was like my mouth wasn't following orders from my brain, which was telling it to, "Stop talking right now!" Haha, I have a disobedient mouth. I hadn't known what I was going to say, but as soon as those two words left my mouth, I knew what I was meant to say instinctively.

"You're wrong," I repeated, reiterating it. "You have changed. At least a little bit. Nick wouldn't have said sorry to me," I said bitterly, looking away from his face. "He would've thought he was too good for that."

"Thanks?" he mumbled, clearly wondering if what I had said was a good thing or not. On one hand, I had said that he had changed a little bit (which was good), but on the other hand, I had insulted his former self (which was bad).

We stood in awkward silence, neither of us looking at the other. When we had been friends, we had never had awkward silences. Sure, we'd sometimes just stand or sit next to each other without saying anything, but those silences had never been _awkward_.

"I want to turn back to how I was before, when we were friends, but I have no idea how," he finally said.

"Ever thought that you need to become a better person before you can find a girl who loves you?" I asked.

He snorted. Yeah, I knew that it sounded kind of cheesy and totally un-Max-ish. But it was the truth.

"You think I don't know that? But _how_?" he asked exasperatedly. We still weren't looking at each other, but I knew that he was probably shifting from foot to foot like he always did when he was trying to think.

"Do I _look_ like I know the answer?" I said.

He sighed. "I just feel like I need you to forgive me. I don't know why. Can we please just be friends?" he asked quietly but desperately. If Fang was the type to do so, I was pretty sure he would be trying to give me the sad puppy look.

That was when I finally snuck a glance at him. He looked so sad and just…lost. Like he didn't know what to do anymore. Didn't know who he was. He looked like he had given up all hope. The stubborn light in his eyes had gone out, leaving them empty and…dark. I had to look away from his eyes because I knew that if I looked at them too long, I would get lost in them. Like I did every single time before. I realized that he didn't really expect me to say yes—this was just one last desperate attempt before he gave up completely.

And I never did what anybody expected me to do.

"Yeah," I said quietly but surely. I didn't really know what led me to make this decision. Like Fang said, it just felt _right. _Besides, Fang had given Iggy Lissa's locker number, which made me hate him less.

Fang widened his eyes in surprise. "What?" he asked in disbelief.

"We can be friends again if it makes you feel better," I said, trying to sound nonchalant. I neglected to mention that, as much as I hated to admit it, being friends with him again would probably make me feel better too. I had missed his companionship. And being friends with Fang again would be interesting, for lack of a better word. And I kind of felt sorry for him as well.

"Really?" He smiled, and not a half-smile this time, either. A full-blown smile. Smiling made him look better, but I didn't tell him that. Oh, nowhere a good as he had once looked, of course, but smiling just made his eyes sparkle. Yep, I just thought that. What was wrong with me?  
"Don't look too excited. I still don't forgive you," I said. I knew it would disappoint him, but I had to set the record straight. "I just decided to overlook the fact that you ditched me and hooked up with the Red-Haired Wonder for now."

He was still smiling. "I'm okay with that." Then he processed all of what I had said. "You call her the Red-haired Wonder?"

"So what?"

"You were _that _jealous of her?" he joked.

I blushed. "I was _not_ jealous."

He ignored me. "So we're friends now," he said thoughtfully. I almost expected him to hold out his hand so we could shake on it.

"Friends," I agreed. Then I thought of something. "As a friend can I tell you something?" I asked innocently. Since when am I innocent?

I knew Fang could tell that I was faking. "What?" he asked warily.

I smirked. "Put on some deodorant."

He rolled his eyes, but I could tell he knew that it was a joke.

I had only been half-joking.

**AN: I didn't like the chapter at all. ****L**** Do you think I need more of Fang's POV? This chapter would've been longer, but my parents are yelling at me to get off the computer. **

**Me: Summer's halfway over. **

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: Urgh!**

**Me: I have to take you to school, huh?**

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: Urgh!**

**Me: Yeah, I know you don't want to either, but maybe this year will be fun!**

**Bob the Vampire Zombie: Urgh?**

**Me: Oh, who am I kidding? **

**Review?**


	21. Chapter 20

**AN: Yes, I'm aware that this is a week late. Let's just overlook that fact, shall we? School starts in a little less than two weeks. *starts crying* On the bright side, I have an awesome prank planned. I feel evil. Hehe. I read Graceling. I almost cried at the end because it was so sad and sweet. *sniffle* I was just going to do a short Fang's POV on his thoughts about events that happened in the last chapter, but it got too long, so I just did a Fang's POV of the last chapter. That's the first part of this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I think I've forgotten to do this for a while. Well, I DON'T own Maximum Ride.**

Fang POV

The first thing I had seen when I had come out of my seventh period class with a hall pass to get something out of my locker, was Iggy fiddling with the lock on Lissa's locker. I walked up to him. "What are you doing?" I asked.

He jumped because I had startled him. He had been _that _nervous. "Relax, it's just me, Fang," I said reassuringly. He breathed out a sigh of relief. "Are you doing something you're not supposed to be doing?" I asked, even though it was quiet obvious he was.

"No, of course not," he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. He went back to fiddling with the lock, and held his ear to the locker door. I had seen people do that in movies before. Or CSI

"Dude, why are you trying to break into Lissa's locker?" I asked.

He looked around nervously, which is pointless considering he's blind. "Are any of her friends around?" he whispered anxiously.

My voice dropped to a whisper as well. "No."

Iggy hesitated but finally, he picked up his red backpack, which was lying on the floor at his feet and took something out of it. I recognized it immediately because some of my former friends had put one in my room once, as a prank. A stink bomb… "I'm going to put it in Lissa's locker and rig it so that when she opens it, it'll blow up in her face," Iggy explained. "But I can't get her damn locker to open," he said in frustration. Then he slammed his fist against the locker. Needless to say, it remained closed.

I thought fast. "What if I told you I know the combination?"

Well, what did I have to lose? I had already made myself a resolution that I had to get on Max's good side, right? And what better way to do that than aiding Iggy in his scheme to humiliate Lissa?

"You know it?" Iggy asked, the excitement in his voice obvious.

"Yeah," I said. She had given it to me back when we had been dating because she had wanted me to get something out of het locker for her. But of course I didn't tell Iggy _that._

"How?" he asked, like I knew he would. Someone would have to be crazy to not wonder how someone like me had gotten Lissa's locker number.

"I saw her open it once," I lied quickly. Luckily, Iggy bought the lie.

"What's her combination?"

"9-48-3" Iggy opened the locker using the combination with ease. His eyes lit up.

"She's in for a surprise," he said with obvious relish. He took the stink bomb and hooked it upin Lissa's locker. He was completely absorbed in his work and seemed to have forgotten I was there at all.  
I decided that it was an excellent time to slip away in case Iggy did something wrong and made the stink bomb blow up on _us._

That would be just like my luck…

* * *

After school, I headed to Lissa's locker to see if Iggy's scheme would actually work. I kind of hoped it would, actually it would be funny to see how Lissa would react. Someone could probably get a video of it and it would be an instant hit on YouTube.

My teacher had let our class out a few minutes after the bell rang, so Max and Iggy were already near Lissa's locker. They were standing around the corner from Lissa's locker so that she wouldn't be able to see them, peering around the locker. I was approaching them from the hallway they were in—the opposite direction from which Lissa would approach her locker—so their backs were to me. I didn't think Max would exactly be overjoyed to see me, so I kept quiet at first. Max was saying something to Iggy. Then Iggy started muttering, "Open your damn locker already," under his breath, as if that would get Lissa to open her locker.

Maybe in Iggy's ideal world, it would.

I tapped Max on her shoulder to get her attention. She turned around. Her eyes turned cold when she saw me. Okay. She was _definitely_ not in a good mood. "What are you doing here?" she snapped. I was just about to explain when Iggy beat me to it.

"Relax, Max. He was the one who gave me Lissa's locker combination," Iggy said, completely unaware of the way Max was glaring at me. And all I had done was _tell her the truth. _If being honest caused people to be mad at me, I might as well just stick to lying my ass off.

"I'm going to get closer so I can hear it when it happens," Iggy said, moving a few feet closer. I waited for Max to start talking to me because I definitely didn't want to provoke her. The last thing I needed was to be on the receiving end of one of her punches.

"I thought you didn't want to have anything to do with this," Max said accusingly.  
Well, I might as well start lying again. Now that I've learned honesty isn't always the best policy. No doubt Max would catch the lie, but it shouldn't hurt (too much) to try, I hope. "I told you. I changed."

"You're lying," Max said matter-of-factly, narrowing her eyes.

"How would you know?" I retorted.

She rolled her eyes. "You're mumbling and you're not looking me in the eye. There's practically a sign over your head saying 'I'm lying'."

"Max—" I began, but I was cut off by a _boom. _I was relieved and disappointed at the same time. Relieved, because I wouldn't actually have to risk talking to her only to have her hurt me. Disappointed, because I couldn't apologize to her. I guess I would have to do this later, if Max would even talk to me. Knowing her, she'd probably avoid me at all costs.

The noise had come from the direction of Lissa's locker. Fortunately, no teachers were in the immediate vicinity because they were all at some meeting. Max swore under her breath, probably because she had missed the exact moment when Lissa had opened her locker. I was kind of disappointed about that too.

Lissa was standing in front of her locker with a crowd of people surrounding her, most of them with their mouths agape. They were wondering who had the audacity to do this to the most popular (and admittedly, sluttiest) girl in school. I could smell the stink bomb from here. The stench was almost unbearable. But that was what Iggy had intended. Max ran to get closer and I followed her. Iggy looked ecstatic and had a maniacal grin in his face.

"I rigged it so that as soon as Lissa opened her locker, it would go off. It wasn't a big bomb. It didn't hurt her, anyway," Iggy whispered. "Well, I don't _think _it did," he added as an afterthought.  
Lissa turned around. She smelled _horrible. _I gagged at the smell. Her face was bright red and she looked positively livid. I saw a few people step back a few feet to get away from Lissa's wrath. I stepped back a little myself. She looked almost as scary as Max did when she got mad. Notice the use of the word "almost".

"Who did this?" Lissa shrieked. She turned from person to person, accusing them in turn. The accused all denied they had anything to do with it, looking like deer caught in a car's headlights. And then she turned to Max, who had her arms crossed over her chest and was smirking. "Was it _you,_Maxie?" Lissa hissed with more than just a touch of hysteria in her voice.

I could tell Max tried her best to look innocent. It wasn't exactly working because it was obvious that she was stifling laughter. And _anyone _could see through Max's "innocent look". Though in this case, she really hadn't done it. Not directly, anyway. "I can't make a bomb, remember?" Max said. Lissa gave her one last glare and then moved on to accusing someone else.

"Come on. Let's get out of here before someone who knows I make bombs tells Lissa," Iggy whispered softly so he wouldn't be overheard. Max nodded and she and I followed Iggy out the front door of the school, which was, fortunately, in the opposite direction from Lissa. We had just reached the flagpole in front of the school when Max started laughing, loud laughs that made her double over. Iggy started laughing too. Even I let go of my emotionless mask for a moment and managed a smile.

"Did...you...see...the...look...on...her...face?" Max gasped between her laughter.

"I wish I could see," Iggy said sadly. I felt sorry for him. He was the one who had actually set this up and he hadn't even been able to see Lissa's reaction.

In the middle of Iggy's and Max's loud laughter (I really hoped no one had noticed), Iggy's phone rang. He took the call, listened for a few minutes, then hung up, making a face. "My mom's here to pick me up. Dang it, I wish I could drive," he said.

"Bye, Iggy," Max said. A car drove up and Iggy got in it. After Iggy's car had driven off, Max turned to me. She looked like she didn't really want to talk to me-just wanted to get this over with. That's kind of how I felt about it too. Max was stubborn. I probably wouldn't be able to get her to forgive me, but it was worth a try. Besides, if I begged Max for forgiveness multiple times, maybe she would actually listen to me.

"What did you want to tell me earlier?" Max asked, her voice icier than I would've liked to hear.

I _could _lie...I seriously considered it. But Max knew me better than almost anyone else, though it was hard to admit. "I guess I can't lie to you and pretend I've changed completely."

"You got that right," she said cockily.

"Do you really expect me to be able to change in just a few weeks?" I asked tiredly. Because if she had, she wasn't right in the head, especially considering that it was ME.

"Well, no," she admitted. I had no speech planned—I barely knew what I was going to say to her. I just wanted...well, I wanted a lot of things. I wanted my old life back. I wanted Cassandra to drop dead. I wanted to _look _the way I had before, as materialistic as that sounds.

But tight then, what I wanted was for Max to be my friend again.

"I'd like to change, but I feel like I can't change unless you're my friend again," I said quickly. I was aware of how pathetic that sounded, but I had to swallow what was left of my dignity (which wasn't much) if I wanted to apologize to Max.

"Why?" Max asked.

I gulped, nervous. Since my looks at been changed, I had started talking less, reverting to how I had been when I had still been friends with Max. This was probably the most I had spoken since then. "Well, for one thing, I need your help. And two, this whole problem started because we stopped being friends. I become an ass after that happened. I dunno, it feels like becoming friends with you again is necessary," I mumbled.

"Um...so you want to become friends with me again because it _feels right_?" Max asked skeptically. Yeah, I knew how desperate that sounded. No need to rub it in my face.

"I know it sounds stupid, but I'm sorry, okay?" I said, with more conviction than I had spoken earlier. I looked up to meet her eyes, the gauge her reaction to my words. I wasn't going to give up. Max could be stubborn, but I could be even more stubborn when I wanted to be. "I'm sorry for being a jerk to you. I'm sorry we're not friends anymore. And I'm sorry that I can't change my whole personality in a little more than a month. I'm just freaking sorry. Can't you accept my apology?" I asked, frustrated because Max didn't seem to be listening to my pleas.

Suddenly, Max shook her head. "You're wrong," she said, as if that was the most obvious thing in the world, even though it certainly wasn't. Max seemed to be surprised that the words had come out of her own mouth. My first instinct was to ask her what drugs she was on. What did she mean? What was I wrong about? I shot her a confused look. "You're wrong," she repeated. "You _have _changed. At least a little bit. Nick wouldn't have said sorry to me. He would've thought he was too good for that," she said bitterly. She looked away from me, playing with the hem of her t-shirt.

"Thanks?" I said uncertainly, wondering if I had just been insulted or complimented.

We stood in awkward silence. The tension in the air was palpable. I couldn't help remembering that just a few years ago- which seems like a lifetime ago now- there had been no such thing as awkward silences. We could just enjoy being in each other's presence without speaking. That thought made me yearn for our old friendship even more, which was definitely not a good thing. It made me remember how hopeless this was. How could I expect Max to want to be friends again, when it was so awkward between us? How could I expect her to forgive me for being a jerk to her, when what I had done was unforgiveable?

I decided to speak just to make things less tense. "I want to turn back to how I was before, when you and I were still friends, but I have no idea how," I finally said.

"Ever thought that you need to become a better person before you can find a girl who loves you?" Max asked thoughtfully.

I snorted because it sounded almost as pathetic as the things I had been saying earlier. I felt like hitting something. Did she really think that I didn't know that? That was the whole point of this conversation, wasn't it? I had no idea how to become a better person and felt that I needed her friendship. I didn't know how Max can make me a better person—heck, hanging out with her might do the exact opposite, but I was solely relying on my instincts. I felt the earlier conviction that I could outlast Max in this battle of stubbornness drain away completely. Because Max could definitely be more stubborn than me. She had every right to hate me. It wasn't like I had done anything nice to her in the past few years. I wouldn't be able to convince her, no matter what I tried. This was just one last attempt that probably wouldn't work. I had to accept that I wouldn't be able to win Max over. The sooner I accepted that, the better off I'd be. It was better to just give up now. I don't know what had happened to my natural stubbornness, but I guess cold logic was suppressing it.

"You think I don't know that? But _how_?" I asked exasperatedly. I was still avoiding looking at Max and I suspected she was doing the same to me.

"Do I _look _like I know the answer?" she snapped.

"I just feel like I need you to forgive me. I don't know why. Can we please just be friends?" I asked quietly, already knowing she would say no. I didn't deserve her as a friend.

After a few minutes, I snuck a discreet glance at her, only to see that she was looking at me too. I hoped she hadn't noticed my glance and blushed. I went back to staring at the ground. I wish she would just answer already and not keep me waiting. The suspense was killing me. If she didn't answer in the next five seconds, I would just assume that the answer was no and walk away.

"Yeah," she finally whispered.

Wait. WHAT?

Had she just said what I thought she just said? Because that didn't sound like something Max would do.

"What?" I asked in complete and utter disbelief. Either I had heard her wrong or she had a moment of insanity.

"We can by friends if it makes you feel better," Max said like it was no big deal. But it was a _really _big deal.

"Really?" I asked, and a smile I couldn't suppress spread across my face.

"Don't get too excited. I still don't forgive you." I admit that disappointed me a bit, but nothing short of the world ending could completely obliterate my good mood. "I've just decided to overlook the fact that you ditched me and hooked up with the Red-Haired Wonder for now," Max added.

Strangely, I didn't mind. It would've been weird if Max had completely forgiven me. The fact that she had agreed that we could be friends again was weird enough. "I'm okay with that," I said. Then I thought about what Max has called Lissa. "You called Lissa the Red-Haired Wonder?"

"So what?"

"You were _that _jealous of her?" I joked. I knew that it probably wasn't a good idea to make fun of Max, but we were on better terms now and I couldn't resist.

Max blushed, which led me to believe that she had been jealous. "I was _not_," she insisted.  
I ignored her. "So we're friends now," I said thoughtfully.

"Friends," she agreed. "As a friend, can I tell you something?" Max asked, trying and failing to look innocent.

"What?"

"Put on some deodorant," she said smirking, but I knew that she was only joking.

She _had _been joking, right?

Fang POV (That night)

Obsession…

That is what this is, I admit it. As much as I wished I wasn't addicted to this (no, I wasn't talking about drugs), it didn't change the fact that I _was._

Ever since that night I first looked at Max in the mirror, I had become obsessed with looking at her, even more so since she'd agreed that we could be friends again. It had become part of my daily routine, as much as I tried to stop myself. I didn't only look at her in the mirror; I sometimes stared at her out of the corner of my eye at school too. She had never caught me, and I had no intention for her to find out anytime soon. It was creepy, but I figured I was fine as long as nobody found out. I never tired of just looking at her, watching her, even if she was doing the most mundane of tasks. I felt a bit stalker-ish, but at least I wasn't looking at her when she was sleeping, which would definitely being the creepy factor up a notch.

I was smart enough to realize what this probably meant-contrary to popular belief, I'm not _that _stupid. But Max wasn't my "true love", as Cassandra would put it. I had already tried kissing her, and it hadn't changed me back. That probably hadn't been one of my best ideas, but I had been desperate, even more so then than I am now.

Actually, I kind of had a theory. Cassandra had said that the girl had to kiss _me _right? Well, I had kissed _her. _What if Max was it after all?

I sighed. Even if Max was the one, it would never work. She didn't love me. She still hadn't forgiven me, as she had said herself today. And she definitely couldn't love me while I looked like this. Sure, we were friends again, but that probably wouldn't lead to anything.

It's definitely a lost cause.

Right?

Max POV (Three Days Later)

Things were definitely getting better between Fang and me. We weren't best friends or even good friends, but it was a start.

But that night, I had a dream.

_I was on a beach. My shoulder felt like it was on fire. We had just been attacked by Erasers, who were human-wolf hybrids. I had no idea how I knew that, but I just now. Next to me was the guy I didn't know the name of..._

_Oh, wait._

_Holy shit!_

_I suddenly remembered a voice in my head distinctly telling me to "remember Fang". But that probably meant that the guy in the dream with me was Fang. But Fang didn't have wings. That was fucking impossible! And he didn't look the way Fang did now. He looked the way he used to when he had been Nick, still handsome in all of his, tall, dark, and mysterious glory._

_Let's forget I thought that, shall we?_

_The voice has told me to remember a guy named Fang-a fact that I had forgotten about until now. But I couldn't _remember _Fang because I had never forgotten him. I figured I hadn't forgotten him because I KNEW EXACTLY WHO HE WAS. Or maybe the voice had just been a figment of my imagination. That would make the most sense, but it didn't explain how I voice in my head knew Fang's name before I even met him-the new him, at least._

_What did this all mean?_

_I think it's quite obvious that I don't like not knowing things. Again, like in my other dream and in my daydream, I couldn't control my actions. My body was moving without my consent. My eyes assessed Fang's injuries. He looked pretty bad. His eyes were closed. He was bleeding heavily and there were scratches on his face. Before I moved him, I felt his neck to see if it was broken. I breathed out a sigh of relief when I realized it wasn't. Then I carefully turned him over. Blood trickled from his mouth._

_"Fang, you need to wake up," I whispered, my mouth unconnected from my brain. Ha! So this guy's name _was _Fang. At least, my dream self said so. Maybe he was a different Fang? But let's be honest here. How many guys named Fang did you know?_

_A groups of kids, all younger than me, ran over to me. I recognized—oh, crap—Iggy and a girl I thought I'd seen around school. They were part of this too? What the heck? I didn't recognize the other two kids. They were blonde and looked like siblings. They looked about six and eight.__  
__"He looks really bad," the 8-year-old boy said. "He should see a doctor."_

_Nothing seemed broken—maybe his nose—but he was still out cold. I lifted his head into my lab and used my sweatshirt to dab at the bloody stripes on his face._

_"We could carry him, you and me," said the guy who may or may not have been Iggy said, his long, pale hands floating over Fang, cataloging bruises, lumps, and blood._

_"Where to?" I asked, hearing my bitterness. "It's not like we can check into a hospital."_

_"No hospi'l," Fang mumbled, his eyes still shut._

_Relief flooded through me._

_"Fang!" I said. "How bad?"_

_"Pre'y bad," he said fuzzily, then, groaning, tried to shift to one side._

_"Don't move!" I told him, but he turned his head and spit blood out onto the sand. He raised his hand and spit something onto it, then opened his eyes blearily._

_"Tooth," he said in disgust. "Feel like crap," Fang added, touching the knots on the back of his head._

_I tried to smile. "You look like a kitty cat." I made whisker motions on my face, indicating where his attacker had raked his. He looked at me sourly._

_"Fang," I said, my voice breaking. "Just live, okay? Live and be okay."_

_With no warning, I kissed he mouth, just like that._

_My mind was reeling from the kiss and trying to figure out what this dream meant. It made no sense whatsoever. My lips tingled where they had touched his and I blushed furiously._

Suddenly, I woke up, my heart racing.

What did it all mean?

Max POV (Next Day)

I was so confused. I had been mulling over the dream all morning. It _had _to mean something, right? My subconscious couldn't be procuring these images if they didn't mean anything, especially since I kept seeing the same guy with the same midnight-black wings over and over again.

The _wings_. People didn't have wings. It was impossible. But those beautiful, dark, glossy wings protruding out of his back had very much been there. And that _stupid _voice had told me to remember Fang. Why did it have to be so cryptic? But now that I thought about it, voices in heads rarely come straight out and tell the person whose head it was invading the information they want. It was like a rule in the Voices in Heads Handbook: Sound like a freaking fortune cookie.

I went to school, but didn't really pay attention. Instead, I tried to remember details from my dream to see if I had missed anything. Like most dreams, the details weren't clear because I had already begun to forget them. And trying to remember the details only made them slip away. I started muttering details from the dream under my breath to see if that would help me remember any more. People must have thought I was crazy or something.

Speaking of the voice, I tried "speaking" to it to see if it would answer._"Voice, speak to me," _I thought as loudly as I could, while showing no outward signs that I was trying to communicate with a voice inside my head

No answer. Well, I hadn't _thought _it would answer, but now I was even more disappointed.

_"The answers lie inside your own mind," _the Voice suddenly said cryptically.

_"What's that supposed to mean?" _I asked mentally.

_"Look inside your own mind." _Would it hurt this voice to give me a straight answer?

"Gee, because that's so helpful!" I said—er, thought—sarcastically.

_"Glad to be of service," _it—I couldn't tell if it was male or female—replied. I decided to just stop talking to the Voice. It wasn't like it was going to help anyway, with its inability to give straight answers. If I wanted to hear stuff like that, I'd get some fortune cookies or check my horoscope!  
I started trying to remember details from the dream again, which was almost as futile as trying to get answers from the Voice. Great. Was I officially capitalizing the "V" in "Voice" now? I'm treating it like an actual person!

So that was how Fang found me at lunch, talking to myself and complaining about a voice inside my head under my breath.

"Max, did you forget to take your meds today?" Fang said, sliding into the seat across from me.

"Of course I didn't forget. I took them this morning, thank you very much." Fang was well aware that I wasn't being serious and wasn't actually on meds. I looked at Fang. He was still ugly, but I wasn't utterly repulsed by it, as some people were. I was kind of getting used to it. That didn't mean I wanted to _kiss _him or anything like that. It was just an observation.

"What's wrong?" Fang asked. He didn't sound overly concerned and probably thought my talking to myself was nothing.

"Nothing," I replied. "Just thinking about how much I want to kill the cafeteria ladies for making us eat this crap." I gestured to my slice of soggy, greasy pepperoni pizza. I looked around, suddenly noticing that someone was missing from our table. "Where's Iggy?"

Fang shrugged. "Absent, probably."

"Yeah," I said absentmindedly. I was almost tempted to tell Fang about my dream, just to confide in somebody. But he'd probably just laugh at me and tease me about the fact that I had been dreaming of him. It wasn't like I had any control over my dreams. If I did, I'd dream about eating cookies all the time. But it was pretty dang tempting to tell someone...anyone.

"Why were you talking to yourself?" Fang asked. I blushed. I hoped he hadn't heard exactly what I was saying.

"Can't a person talk to herself once in a while without being interrogated?" I snapped.

"Usually. But since you seem to be complaining about a voice inside your head, I don't know if you're really sane or not."

"Of course I'm sane," I said indignantly. It was then that I was fully aware of the fact that Fang and I were alone at our lunch table. Iggy had always been there, cracking jokes. Now it was just Fang and me...oh crap. I decided to change the subject to get away from talking about my sanity, or lack thereof. And the only way to do that was to change the subject to _Fang's _problems, not mine.

"So, how much time do you have left?" I asked Fang casually, trying to take a bite out of the cookie on my plate. It was disgusting, and a spit it out almost immediately.

"Cookie not up to your standards?" Fang said, ignoring my question.

"Don't change the subject," I said, sticking my tongue out at him childishly.

"Isn't that what you just did?" he pointed out.

I thought about this for a moment. Of course he was utterly correct, but I wasn't about to acknowledge that fact. "Just answer my question," I demanded.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Fang, feigning ignorance even though I was pretty sure he knew what I was talking about. I gave him a pointed look and he sighed. "I don't want to talk about the stupid curse, okay?" he said irritably.

"You were the one who wanted to do something about it. You never seemed to give up to easily before. Don't tell me you're about to start now." I picked out the chocolate chips from the cookie and stuffed them in my mouth. Luckily _they _were actually edible.

"I don't want to talk about it," Fang said, trying to keep his voice even.

"Uh-huh," I said sarcastically. "And you just want to stay like this forever, huh?"

"Do you think I have even an inkling of what to do? It's hard being in my shoes!" he said angrily.  
"Well, you're not going to get anything done if you don't even _talk _to a girl." I didn't mention that he was talking to _me _now, as that would undoubtedly make the conversation more awkward.

"And who the hell am I supposed to talk to?" he asked, glaring at me.

"Um..." I pointed to a girl with her black hair in pigtails and huge glasses. "What about her? She looks nice," I said with fake cheeriness.

Fang gave me an annoyed look. "She's one of the smartest girls in school. I'll talk to her when I want a lecture in trigonometry."

I snorted. "I'm guessing that's never."

"You think?"

"Um...her?" I pointed to another girl. She had huge muscles and looked kind of scary, actually.

Fang widened his eyes. "HER? She could beat me to a pulp if she wanted to." I knew how hard it was for testosterone-filled boys to admit that a girl could beat them up, so I decided to take his word for it.

"What the heck is she on? Steroids?" I asked as the girl flexed her muscles and glared at some freshman kid she towered over.

"Who knows?"

"Um...how about _that _girl?" I pointed to someone with lone blonde hair with her back turned to us.

The girl turned around. I saw who I previously thought was a girl and blushed.

"That's a dude," Fang said kind of needlessly.

"Yeah, I can see that now." I wanted to start laughing so badly. It wasn't my fault that his hair looked like a girl's and that he was facing away from me.

"You're really bad at this, aren't you?" asked Fang suddenly.

"At what?" I asked him with a confused look on my face.

"Helping people," Fang said simply. "You're doing a really bad job of helping _me _right now."

I tried to look offended. "That's not true. Just yesterday, I helped the lunch line move faster."

"Didn't you just shove the people in front of you out of the way so you could get to the pudding?"

"What's your point?" I paused. "Besides, if you don't get off your ass and find a girl, you're going to have to stay like this forever."

"You're not exactly helping any," said Fang.

"You're the one who said I was bad at helping people. If I'm that bad, why should I even try?" I countered.

This launched us into an argument about my helping skills. I, of course, said that I'm _very _good at helping people, while Fang said otherwise.

"Didn't I offer to feed your goldfish when you were six and went on that three-week vacation? That's helpful," I said.

"You forgot to feed it after one week and it died," Fang pointed out.

"That's irrelevant," I protested.

And so on. It wasn't a serious argument. We were just joking around. Like friends. Heck, I even laughed a few times when Fang mentioned times when I had tried to help people and had failed. Epically. More of a fail than Justin Bieber's singing. It reminded me of our old friendship. I began to consider telling him about the dreams again. Well, we were friends now, so what did I have to lose? Worrying about what the dream meant was going to drive me crazy if I didn't tell anyone.

"I've been having these dreams," I said before I began to have second thoughts.

"I think everyone has dreams," Fang said sarcastically.

"But these are different." And then I told him. I told him about seeing him in my dreams—the old him anyway. Of seeing that group of kids. Of having wings. Of him getting hurt. Of the voice in my head telling me to remember a guy named Fang. I didn't tell him about the kisses though. Awkward.

After I was dome, Fang's eyes were wide "It's official. You're going crazy."  
I glared. "But the dreams seem so _real."_

"I don't have wings."

"I think that's pretty obvious," I said drily.

He laughed. "So you dream about me, huh?"

"I didn't tell you just for you to laugh," I said indignantly. "I'm not making this up, Fang. I thought telling someone would help, but you obviously think I'm crazy." My voice was sour.

"Ever thought about just Googling winged kids?" he said, suddenly serious again.

I was stunned. Could it really be that simple? This had never occurred to me before. Could it really be _this _easy?

"Meet you in the library after school?" Fang tried not to laugh at the look on my face.

I nodded, feeling stupid for not thinking of this first.

**AN: As to Max's question, course it's not that easy, Maxie...it never is... If only the world's questions could be answered with Google. The scene I used is from TAE. This is my longest chapter yet so PLEASE review. I'm begging here. I've run out of books to read. Does anyone have any recommendations?**

**Me: What are you doing?**

**Bob: *dips chocolate cookie in blood and eats it* Urgh. (translation: Nothing.)**

**Me: Is that human blood?**

**Bob: Urgh...**

**Me: *glares* Whose blood is it?**

**Bob: Urgh... (translation: Um...) *runs away***

**Me: Well, I gotta chase after Bob to make sure he isn't drinking my friends' blood. See ya!  
Review?**


	22. Chapter 21

**AN: I'm really busy with school. Super-duper busy. Busier than…busy things. I'll be going away this weekend. No WiFi. What fun. **

**Thanks to my beta, kiki1607! **

Max POV

"So did the other kids in your dream have wings or not?" Fang asked. He and I were sitting in the public library after school, where we were trying to do research on winged kids. We would have gone to the school library, but the cranky old librarian had kicked us out because, and to quote her verbatim, we had been "disrupting the quiet and tranquil atmosphere of the great place of learning that is the school media center." Yeah, great place of learning, my ass. We had been the only people in there, due to the fact that no one wanted to put up with the librarian.

All I had done was sneak food into the library against the rules.

Apparently, the best way to hide chocolate chip cookies was _not _to start eating them when the library was standing right behind me without me knowing it.

She had kicked us out without even hearing the fabricated excuse that we had thought of beforehand as the reason we needed to use the computers. Which was that we were doing a biology project on birds. Fitting, I guess. Fang was pretty annoyed about getting kicked out, which didn't make much sense since he didn't even _like _the library. He kept mumbling something that sounded like, "Only a complete idiot would get themselves kicked out for eating banned food in the library with the librarian standing behind them."

Well, at least _I _hadn't been the one to get a witch mad at get myself turned ugly, Mr. I'm Too Good To Get Caught Eating a Cookie in a Library, a.k.a. Fang.

I shrugged in response to his question. "If they had them, I didn't see them."

"Are you _sure_?" he asked while we were waiting for the computer to turn on.

I gave him a look that would have made anyone else cringe, but only made him look like he wanted to slap me. "No," I said sarcastically. "I'm totally not sure and am lying to you this very minute even though it won't be of any advantage to me." I hit the back of Fang's head lightly to emphasize my point (yes, it probably still hurt).

"I could deal with the sarcasm, but did you _have _to hit me?" he asked, rubbing the spot where I'd hit him. Yes Fang, yes I did.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Fang. You know sarcasm isn't complete unless there's slapping involved."

He turned to glared at me.

"Can't the computer go any faster?" I asked no one in particular. These library computers were so slow! I slapped the computer as if that would help it go faster.

Of course, it didn't work. Technology must hate me.

"Max, slapping the computer isn't solving anything," Fang said gently, like an animal trainer would talk to an out-of-control animal. You know what? I don't like that simile.

"How would you know?" I demanded, putting my hands on my hips. "Have you ever tried it before?" I looked at the computer pleadingly. "Computer, if you work, I'll love you forever…" I begged.

The screen suddenly went blank and the computer shut down for some inexplicable reason. I stared at it, dumbfounded.

Fang snorted. "Guess the computer really doesn't want your love."

"Well, the computer has really bad taste." I crossed my arms over my chest. Since there were no other available computers, I sighed, and turned it on again, hoping that this time, it would work. I decided to start praying to the computer gods. Maybe a sacrifice would appease them. I wouldn't mind sacrificing Fang… Just kidding, sort of.

"Stupid computer," I muttered under my breath.

Fang rolled his eyes. "Max, just _wait._"

I waited for about 15 seconds. "There. I waited. It _still _isn't working," I complained.

Of course, that was when the desktop finished loading. "Well, patience is a virtue you certainly don't have," said Fang. He took the computer mouse. "Google Chrome or Internet Explorer?"

The question everyone wanted answered.

Of course, for me, the answer was easy.

"Chrome. Explorer annoys me," I said. Fang clicked on the little Google Chrome icon, and of course, we were forced to wait for it to load.

I hoped the answer would be able to be found on Google, but there was a little voice in my head (not _the _voice) telling me that I wouldn't be able to. It just seemed too obvious, which was probably why I had overlooked it n the first place. Sometimes, the most obvious answer is the one that's the hardest to find. Great, now _I _sounded like a fortune cookie. I'd assumed that it would take more than just Googling winged kids to find the answer.

"Are you sure the person in your dreams was _me_?" asked Fang.

'Positive,. Unless you have an identical twin who dresses like an emo person too." I smirked.

"Should we tell Iggy about this?"

I shook my head. "Not until we have more information. I don't want to freak him out."

"And you felt it was okay to freak _me _out?"

"Well, you seemed more likely to believe me than Iggy." That was really only part of it. The other reason was that the dream version of me had kissed Fang. Multiple times. So he was more involved in this than Iggy.

"You realize, I still don't really believe you?"

"Well, your reaction was better than insisting that I need therapy."

Finally, Google Chrome loaded. Fang typed "bird kids" into the search bar and turned to me.

"Are you sure you want to find out?" he asked me.

I opened my mouth to tell him that _of course _I did, but closed it again abruptly. Was I ready to find out something that could quite possibly change my life (okay, I was being overly dramatic)? Suddenly, I felt horribly exposed. _Anyone _could look at the screen and see what we were up to. I cast a discreet glance around the library. No one seemed to be looking this way, but what if they _did_? Sure, looking up "bird kids" wasn't something _bad_, but this was something I wanted to find out about without being paranoid about a bunch of people watching me. For the first time that day, I wished I was in the privacy of my own home.

I shut my eyes. "Just click on it," I said before I lost my resolve. Fang clicked on "Search". I opened my eyes tentatively to see the search results. None of them seemed relevant. It seemed like Fang was thinking the same thing because he said, "I think we need to narrow our search down a little."

"You _think_?" I asked. I scrolled down the list. "There's a list of good pet birds for kids. I highly doubt that'll help."

Fang typed in "bird kids Fang" and pressed Search.

I looked at the screen. "Well, someone thinks he's very important, hmm?"

"You said that the guy in the dream was me. Or someone who looks like me and has the same name as me. Maybe adding that will narrow our search down a little," he explained.

Well, that made sense, even though I didn't want to admit it to Fang. I nodded reluctantly and he smirked when he saw my expression.

The first link was to something called "Fang's Blog". I looked at Fang with a confuse expression on my face. "You have a blog?"

"No."

"Interesting. You have a blog that you don't know about." Since Fang was still staring at the computer screen in what I assumed to be shock (even though it was kind of hard to tell with the whole emotionless thing), I grabbed the mouse from him and clicked on the link. The first words I saw on the page were 'Oops! This link is broken.' I shrugged and said, "I'll just refresh the page." I did so, but it still said that the link was broken. "Damn it," I muttered under my breath. So I pressed refresh again and again, getting more frustrated each time it didn't work, until Fang took the mouse out of my hand and set it down out of my reach.

"It's not going to work, Max," he said slowly, as if talking too loudly or not calmly enough would set me off on a killing rampage.

I took a few deep breaths to clam myself. "Okay. Maybe you're right." So I went back to the Google page and tried the link below that—the link to a website for a company called Itex.

But again, Google said that the link was broken. In fact, none of the links that might actually help us seemed to work. Bewildered, I handed the mouse over to Fang, as if irrationally hoping that he would have more luck than me. He took it soundlessly—is that really surprising?—and tried. The links didn't work for him either. I guess he didn't have a magical touch that I lacked.

"Somehow, I don't think this is a coincidence," I said. Strangely, I didn't feel too disappointed. I mean, I did, a little bit—I would've been stupid if I hadn't—but somewhere deep down inside, I hadn't thought it would work anyway. It had just seemed to good to be true that there was a solution _this _simple, so I had known not too expect too much.

"Someone's doing this on purpose. Someone doesn't want us to know," I said, still staring at the screen.

"We shouldn't jump to conclusions," Fang said.

"Do _you _think this is a coincidence?"

"Well, no," he admitted reluctantly.

"Exactly," I said, feeling like I had just won a long argument even though I hadn't. "So who do you think did it?"

"I'm more concerned with the _why _than the _who."_

"So you believe that I'm telling the truth about my dreams now?" I asked hopefully.

"Well, someone definitely doesn't want us to find out about them, I guess…"

I beamed. "So you'll help me figure out my dreams?"

He looked skeptical. "I don't see what we can do though."

"I'll think of something," I said in a determined voice. I didn't believe what I was saying, but it sounded good, and that was what mattered. I could tell that Fang saw right through my bluff, so I said, "You help me with trying to figure out my dreams and I'll help you with your…ugly little problem."

Fang's eyebrows rose. "Ugly little problem? Really, Max?"

I glared at him. "Do we have a deal or not?"

"Deal," he agreed.

I was just about to nod when I saw something suspicious out of the corner of my eye. Someone with bright red hair was leaving the library. I turned quickly so I could see the person better. I couldn't believe my eyes. I could only see the person's backside, but there was no mistaking who it was.

"Is that…Lissa?" I asked Fang slowly.

Fang turned to look and squinted to see better. "I think it is…"

"What's she doing here?" It was completely out of character for Lissa to be in a library. The words "Lissa" and "library" went together about as well as "Fang" and "pink tutu". Okay, that's a disturbing thought. Very disturbing.

Fang shrugged. He looked unperturbed, but he was probably as surprised as I was. I almost had the irrational thought that Lissa was spying on us. But why would she want to do that?

Something fishy was going on here…

* * *

"What are you doing here, Goode?" Jeb asked, spinning around in his swivel chair to look at his fellow Whitecoat. He was in his office, behind a desk while his associate (he preferred that word to "friend" because it sounded fancier) sat in the chair in front of him, fidgeting awkwardly. After a few minutes of tense silence, Goode cleared his throat. "It worked, Jeb. Our technicians were able to prevent the test subjects from finding out about the experiment."

Jeb breathed out a sigh of relief. Max and Fang had been _this _close to shattering Jeb's plans. They weren't ready to find out yet.

"So…any progress on finding the witch?" Jeb asked.

"Um…no. She's remained evasive," Goode said nervously. Perhaps being in the presence of someone who could order his death in a heartbeat was affecting Goode's ability to remain calm and collected.

"And are you putting all your best efforts into completing this task?" Jeb asked, not quite convinced with his work.

"Yes, of course," Goode said quickly.

"Remember, we need to reverse that spell on Fang."

"Yes, of course," Goode repeated, sounding like a broken record.

Jeb turned to do something on his computer. He began typing, and his attention was fixed on the screen. Goode took that as his cue to leave, and he exited the room, sweating profusely.

In actuality, Jeb wasn't doing anything important at all. He was just playing Internet Checkers.

* * *

Fang POV

Well, what happened in the library had been weird. I was curious to find out about the winged kids Max had dreamed about, but my problem seemed a bit more important than hers. I had to agree with her that it seemed like someone—or many people—didn't want us to find out. I didn't believe in coincidences.

I was "home". Aunt Mandy's house was the closest to a home I would get. I was about to run up to my room when Angela walked up to me and said something I definitely hadn't expected. "I had a vision," she said, biting her lip, like she was unsure whether she should be telling me or not.

"I'm sure you're just imagining things," I said in what I hoped was a reassuring voice. An 8-year-old having a vision? Was _everyone _going crazy around me?

She shook her head emphatically. "No, I'm not," she insisted. "And I think that you know it too. You're just in denial when you tell me I'm imagining things."

She seemed strangely grown-up for an 8-year-old. I chuckled and she glared at me, reminding me a lot of Max's glares, thinking that I didn't believe her and was laughing at her. I shook my head. "It's not that I think you're lying. You just sound a lot like my friend Max," I explained.

Angela's eyes widened. "That was the name of the girl in my visions!" she exclaimed excitedly.

"You had a vision about Max?" I asked skeptically.

Angela nodded, and then shook her head. What the heck was that supposed to mean? "Well, it wasn't just her. I was there, and so was Gazzy. You were there too, that's why I wanted to tell you. You didn't look like you do now. You looked the way you did when Mom took us to visit you when we were younger. There were two people I don't know. They all had wings. They were really pretty."

I felt my blood run cold and my heartbeat speed up. "Was one of the people you didn't recognize a teenager around my age with strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes?" I asked, trying to keep calm.

"Yeah. How did you know?"

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. This was so weird that I couldn't even put its weirdness into words. Max and Angela were seeing the same six bird kids in their dreams (well, in Angela's case, a vision) and one of them just happened to be me. "I can't tell you right now, Angela."  
She stamped her foot. "I wanna know," she said stubbornly.

I looked at her straight in the eye. "I promise I'll tell you later. But right now, I need you to tell me how you got this vision."

Angela thought about this."Well, I was watching TV and then I just started seeing this group of people. Kind of like a movie in my head, you know?" I nodded, even though I _didn't _know.

"What was happening in your vision?"

"We were just flying."

"Thanks for telling me this, Ange. But you can't tell _anyone _else," I told her seriously.

"Why not?" she demanded.

"Well, maybe you can tell Gazzy, but no grown-ups," I amended.

"Not even Mom?"

"Not even her." What can I say? Some gut instinct told me that I couldn't trust adults. And could you blame me? "Can you do that?"

Angela nodded reluctantly. "Okay. But you have to explain soon."

"I promised, didn't I?"

Angela went back to watching TV and I took out my phone o call Max. This information would probably freak her out even more, but she would want to know.

* * *

Iggy was waiting at their lunch table for Max and Fang, who were both late for lunch. It was uncharacteristic for them to be this late, and he wondered what was holding them up. Iggy suddenly felt very lonely. True, he hadn't known Max and Fang for a very long time, but they were his friends (sort of). And a table of one seemed much less fun than a table of three.

"Um…you're Iggy, right?" a female voice behind him spoke. He turned around even though he couldn't see who was speaking to him. It was instinctual.

"Yeah," he replied.

"I'm Max's sister, Ella." Iggy could hear the discomfort in her voice, probably because she didn't know how to treat someone with a disability. "Max told me to tell you that she and Fang are in the computer lab doing research for an English project."

"Oh," Iggy said, disappointed.

"Can I ask you a question?" Ella asked suddenly. She sounded awkward and comfortable, but she had such a pretty voice.

"Well, since you already have, I guess the great Iggy can grant you the honor of asking another." Iggy smiled, hoping that he sounded witty and not like a total douche bag. As soon as Iggy spoke the words, he began to regret them. _Did I sound like I was flirting with her? I mean, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but did I sound too forward?_

Ella giggled and Iggy decided that he liked that sound. "The great Iggy? In your dreams?"

"You sure know how to crush someone's ego," Iggy said, acting like he was insulted.

"I'm sure your wounded male pride and survive another blow." Ella suddenly sounded curious again. "If you don't mind asking, what's it like to be blind?"

Iggy was visibly (not that he would know) shocked.

Ella blushed, though Iggy couldn't see. "Ohmigosh, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked that. It was insensitive. I—"

"No, it's fine," Iggy interrupted her rambling. "I'm not mad. I've just never been asked that so suddenly before." He was trying to make sense of his thoughts. Ella had definitely surprised him more than any person had before.

"I'm so sorry. I totally shouldn't have done that," Ella apologized again, even though Iggy had said that he was okay with it. Iggy could hear the regret in her voice, and he longed for her to sound happy again.

"I said its fine." He laughed, hoping that it would lighten the mood. "I actually _like_that you asked me. I know that half the people who talk to me are dying to ask me that anyway."

"Are you really not mad?" Ella asked worriedly.

Iggy shook his head. "I'm not one of those people who are overly sensitive about being blind."

"I can't imagine not being able to see…"

"I can't remember a time when I _could _see, so I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. I've learned to work around it. It's not that hard," he said thoughtfully.

"Do you ever wish you could see?"

He shrugged. "I've thought about it, but I'm not sure I want to. I just wouldn't feel like myself. The blindness is a part of me, even though I wasn't born with it." He chuckled humorlessly. "You must think I'm crazy, not wanting my sight back."

"No, I think I know what you mean," Ella said quietly. "I'm not going to pretend that I can relate, but I see what you mean. It's like you've spent so much of your life working around your blindness that you don't know if you can be you without it, right?" Strangely, Ella had put it into words perfectly. At that moment, contrary to what he had said about not being sure if he wanted his sight back, he desperately wanted to see Ella, even if just for one fleeting second.

"Wow you're honest." Iggy said the first thing that came to mind.

"I guess," she said. "Do you mind if I sit here? I don't think I can stand another conversation about Taylor Lautner's abs at my lunch table. He's cute and all, but I don't think I can stand another fangirl squeal."

"Sit down and bask in the presence of the great Iggy." He heard Ella sit next to him and set her tray down. This must have turned some heads in the cafeteria, and Iggy was happy that he couldn't see their faces as they found another source of fresh gossip.

"Do you always refer to yourself in the third person?"

"It's fun! Try it!" Iggy urged.

"Um…the awesometastic Ella wants to strangle her Algebra teacher for giving her too much homework even though he's old and her mom says she has to be nice to old people." Ella paused. 'I still don't see the appeal."

"The great Iggy declares that Ella isn't awesometastic enough for the honor of referring to oneself in third person. Ha!" he said.

"Y'know, for a 16-year-old, you sound like a child."

"Immaturity is a gift."

"Uh-huh. You keep telling yourself that, Iggy." He could hear that she was stifling laughter. Finally, she just couldn't hold it in anymore and burst into hysterics. This was one time Iggy actually enjoyed being laughed at.

Iggy didn't remember what they talked about for the rest for the rest of the lunch period. Somehow, the details of their conversation seemed to fade in comparison to the fact that she had been sitting next to _him_. Out of everyone in the cafeteria, this girl with the beautiful voice and melodious laughter had chosen to sit next to him. When the bell rang and they departed, Iggy was already wondering when he would see (well, in the figurative sense) Ella again. She was…interesting. Talking to her had almost made up for the fact that Max and Fang had been absent from lunch.

Oh, _shit_.

Max.

Iggy sincerely hoped that she wouldn't kill him for developing a liking to her _little sister_. Though Iggy wasn't a total creeper, and he hoped that fact would work in his favor.

Knowing Max and how easily she got angry?

Not gonna happen.

**AN: I am **_**not **_**in the mood to be funny right now. Bob went to get me cookies. So just…**

**Review?**


	23. Chapter 23

**AN: I'M SO SO SO SO SORRY! I've been so busy that fanfiction is the LAST thing on my mind. But I'm updating now, aren't I? I'm trying to fall back into a comfortable updating schedule, but it's really hard. Now, I'm really just deciding which stories I update more by the amount of reviews I get (which basically means Nico's Man Diary, Nameless, and Drenched in Water are GUARANTEED NOT to be put on hiatus). **

Fang POV

"Max? What are you doing here?" I opened the door of the house to let Max in. She ran inside without waiting for an actual invitation, typical _Max_. I just shut the door behind her. Max ran into the kitchen and opened the pantry door, perusing its contents. She grabbed a jar of oatmeal raisin cookies and scowled.

"What's up with the lack of chocolate chip cookies in this house?" she complained in frustration.

"Maxie, beggars can't be choosers," I reprimanded. I took the jar of cookies away from her and stuffed one into my mouth. She took a small Ziploc bag out of the front pocket of her jeans, they contained slightly crushed cookies.

"I brought some of my own—I just wanted to see if you had any better ones." Max started eating the cookies, walking over to the blue couch which was sitting in front of the TV.

"Why do you have cookies in your pocket?" I asked. Max hurriedly wiped away the cookie crumbs around her mouth.

"You never know when you'll be in need of a cookie," she said sagely.

"Wise advice from such an unwise person," I teased. "How did you figure out where I live now?" I grabbed a cookie out of her bag before she could stop me. She glared but I ate the cookie slowly just to rub it into her face.

"I went over to your house and your mom said you left. She sounded like she meant it permanently. After she told me to get the fuck off your porch—she really is a charming woman—I realized that you would probably come here," she explained. "I was your friend once, you know."

"Oh."

"So I guess you've reverted back to one-word answers?"

"Yeah."

"You should talk more."

"And you should keep your mouth shut more." I glanced around uncomfortably, suddenly realizing that we were the _only two freaking people _in the house. "Why are you here, Max?"

"Well, I—"

"I mean, _why _did you come here when you know hanging out with me can make your friends hate you? Why have you been talking to me at all? Don't people make fun of you for it?" I blurted out.

I was expecting a halfway intelligent answer.

So of course, Max _started cracking up_. I should have seen this coming.

And I mean stomach-clutching, spittle-inducing cracking up. There were tears flowing out of her eyes and she wiped them away quickly. After she was done (about 15 EFFIN minutes), she sat up straight and tried to look serious again. She kept erupting into giggles, so it was pretty much a fail. Finally, she calmed herself down enough to say, "Oh, you have got to be kidding me!"

"Huh?" I asked stupidly.

"I don't have any friends other than you and Iggy. You made sure of that," Max pointed out.

'_Max, one of these days, I'll tell you how much I liked you back then and you'll be so surprised_,' I thought to myself. I didn't know how I felt about her bringing this up. We hadn't talked about the reason we ice, it would be easier to bring this up later if I needed to.

"Sorry," I said because that was the only thing I could think of. It was the polite thing to do, I guess.

"Somehow, I believe you a lot more now than I did when you first tried the apology thing on me." Max gave an unconvincing, weak smile. "Besides, I'm not really the type to care what everyone thinks, so I don't give a damn about what everyone says about me hanging out with you. Lighten up, Fangalator. It's not the end of the world if my social reputation is ruined."

I grimaced (partly because of her crappy nickname). I wished I could be like Max sometimes—without the cookie addiction. She didn't care about other people's opinions, unlike me. Maybe if my mindset was more like hers, my condition would be a little bit more bearable.

I grunted in response to her statement and Max rolled her eyes at me. "I found Itex," she said, crossing her arms over her chest and staring at me to await my inevitable question.

"I—what?" I asked, confused with the sudden change of topic.

"I found Itex," she repeated,

"Internet?" I asked reaching for another cookie, but Max smacked my hand away.

"I was randomly searching random companies to see if they had any connection to Itex and guess what? Most of them do."

"Huh…" My brain was trying to catch up.

"The people who made this short I'm wearing. My binder. My TV. They're all owned by Itex in some way, at least partially. It only took a little bit of digging to find out," Max said smugly.

"Cool," I said. WHAT ELSE WAS I SUPPOSED TO SAY?

"I find out something that's potentially important and all you can say is 'cool'?" she asked scathingly.

"Uh…yeah?"

"You disgust me."

And that's coming from the girl who was talking with cookies in her mouth. "Why did you feel the need to come here and tell me when you could've just told me over the phone?"

Max shrugged. "My mom keeps having this guy with a creepy mustache over. I had to get out of the house." Max shuddered.

"Can you show me?" I asked, changing the subject.

Max looked at me in surprise. "Show you the mustache? Am I supposed to rip it off his face or something? Because I highly doubt you actually want to see it. It's all hairy…"

I rolled my eyes. "No, not the _mustache_. How you found out those companies were owned by Itex."

"Oh. Well, that was a big topic change." Max reached into the pocket of her hoodie and pulled out a piece of paper.

"Good thing I thought ahead and printed out what I found," she said proudly. I took the papers from her. It seemed like Max had printed out a page giving information about a site of a clothing line.

"What am I supposed to be looking for? Large words saying 'I AM OWNED BY ITEX'?" I asked sarcastically.

"Read the fine print at the bottom."I scanned the bottom of the page and there it was; fine print declaring that the company was owned by Itex.

"All of the other websites I went to had that in small font too. Looks like Itex doesn't want people to know that it controls that much."

"Huh…"

"Would it hurt you to give a halfway intelligent answer?"

"Touché." I smirked. "What do you think we should do next?"

Max grinned wickedly. "Since I have no idea what to do about Itex, it's time to find you a girlfriend."

I stared at her to see if she if she was joking. Nope…

* * *

Max had made her declaration about a week ago and had made no headway since then, but I was still scared of what she would do. Sure, I needed to find a way to break the curse, but knowing Max, she would pick some psycho murderer. But maybe I was just being paranoid… At least Iggy seemed happy.

"Did you know that Max has a little sister?" he asked quite randomly.

"Uh…yeah?" I'd met her before. She was only a few years younger than me and Max, and had seemed nice but way too girly. Not that Lissa was any better.

"What do you think of her?" Iggy asked almost…dreamily, no not in a gay way, more like the 'in a trance' kind of way. Okay, I see what's going on here… Well, I hoped I was wrong because Max would not be happy.

"She's…okay?" It was meant to be a statement but came out as more of a question. I thought Iggy was going to deny what I had just said and declare how absolutely beautiful and amazing Ella was, like some cliché lovesick teenager, but then Max finally approached out table, with a girl in tow.

Wait. WHAT?

Max had a grin on her face and her expression was triumphant. I wondered if I could think of an excuse to run away as fast as I could.

"Hiya, Fang, Iggy. This is Monique," Max said, looking at me and smirking. Iggy was staring at a spot 5 inches above the top of Monique's head. Hadn't this girl defended me once before?

"OMG, like, hi! My name's Monique but you can call me Nudge. Because you have to nudge me to get me quiet sometimes. Isn't that the coolest nickname ever?" Monique—Nudge—was staring at me like she was trying to figure me out. She didn't shy away from me but didn't treat me as an equal human being either.

"Nudge is Ella's friend," Max explained. Iggy perked up at the mention of Ella. Stupid lovesick teenager. "Ella wants to sit with us today, but she isn't here yet, so Nudge is going to wait for her." Max shot me a meaningful look. "Is that okay with you?" Even if we had said no, it wouldn't have mattered because Max sat down, pulling Nudge with her. Nudge looked uncomfortable, but it was worse for me.

"So…um…Fang, right?" she asked me. She seemed like the type to talk just for something to do, annoying type. I had no clue what had compelled Max to bring her here, because I highly doubted that the only reason she was here was because of Ella. "You're sorta new, right? Where are you from? You don't have to tell me if you, like, don't want to. Because that question was kinda stalkerish. I was just curious, that's all—"

As Nudge kept rambling, I shot Max a panicked look. I hadn't worked out the where I'd "moved" from, which in retrospect, was really bad planning on my part. Luckily, Max was better at thinking of a story on the spot. "He was homeschooled before," she answered smoothly. As soon as Nudge wasn't looking, Max mouthed, "You owe me one," at me. Actually I owed her a lot.

"Oh, I've never met anyone who's homeschooled before. How is it? Is it hard to make friends since you don't see any at school?" Nudge must have seen the look on my face and deduced that the whole "not having friends" was a sore subject for me. "OMG, I'm sorry."

"This is the most freaking facepalm situation ever," Iggy said in a monotone, no doubt disappointed because Ella wasn't there.

"So is facepalm now considered an adjective?" Max asked.

"Anything can be an adjective if you really want it to be."

Of course, this launched Max and Iggy into an argument about which nouns can be used as adjectives, and even Nudge participated. Well, her contributions made even less sense than how Justin Bieber got famous, but it was still better than what I did. I just sat in my metaphorical emo corner and mulled over what Nudge had said. The sad thing was, in another life, I'd be the one Nudge looked up to, not the one she pitied. She used to hang out on the fringes of my group, and those people had always tried to suck up to the main leaders of the group.

I wanted that life again. The life where every guy wanted to be me and every girl had a crush on me. That kind of life was so easy—it barely took any brainpower. But this new life was confusing, with people constantly thinking, "What's wrong with _that _kid?" even though most of them were too polite to say it out loud.

But this new life had Max.

If I went back to my earlier existence, Max and I never would've become friends again. And being friends with her again reminded me of what I had missed out on in those years when we had hated each other. Max was my best friend again—granted, I only had two friends to choose from, but still.

And she didn't even fully trust me.

I could tell that she was holding back a bit. Max used to tell me everything—her thoughts, her hopes, her dreams. Now all our conversations revolved around either superficial things, Itex, or my problem. I had permanently erased myself off her good list when I had chosen Lissa over her. You'd think I'd regret it now, but…

I wasn't sure.

There was a part of me thinking, "What the hell, you doofus? Get on your knees and beg Max to forgive you if that's what you have to do." But the other part of me was thinking something along the lines of, "Oh, screw your friendship with Max and stop being such a pansy. You had fun in those years when you and Max hated each other. Use her to find a girl, then ditch her! She's only got herself to blame for trusting that you would be her friend again. She's probably hoping to get you in bed when you turn back, pretty boy. Better reject her now."

Ugh. WHY MUST MY BAD SIDE TALK TO MUCH MORE THAN MY GOOD SIDE?

I began to wonder if there could be some sort of balance between my two lives, maybe Max and I would still be friends? Or maybe one day kids will have wings grafted into their backs! Yeah right, this is Max were talking about.

"Um, Earth to Fang?" Max waved a hand in front of my face to draw my attention. "Were you listening at all?"

"Maybe?" I tried to smile, as if that would make Max less irritated with me.

Max rolled her eyes and placed a hand on her hip. "No, you weren't. Which is actually a good thing because we were talking about you." She then turned back to the book she was reading without offering any explanation. Max = infuriating. Iggy just winked at me (well, a spot near me), but kept silent. Nudge looked like she was about to say something, but Iggy nudged her (geddit?) and her mouth closed.

"Is anyone going to tell me what's going on?" I asked in frustration.

I doubt it," said Max, shaking her head.

"Well, on the bright side, we decided that 'cookie' should be used as an adjective," Nudge announced cheerily.

"How absolutely cookie," Max mumbled, her eyes still glued to the book.

"So…what'd I miss?" Ella asked. In my epic staring at Max to see if that would enable me to read her mind (it didn't), I had missed Ella's approach. She sat down right next to Iggy. And by right next to him, I meant that if she was any closer, she probably would've been sitting in his lap. I could tell Max noticed because he eyes narrowed noticeably. Iggy was lucky he couldn't see. But Ella could and the look on Max's face looked like it scared her a bit.

"You didn't miss a thing," Iggy replied with, I think, a little bit of fondness in his voice, which was a bad idea when the big sister of the girl he was attempting to flirt with was sitting _right there_.

"Ella, can I talk to you for a minute?" Max asked coolly. Ella looked back with only a trace of fear in her expression (I respected her for that).

"Now?" she asked.

Max grabbed Ella's arm and dragged her off to the bathroom. I never understood why girls felt the urge to talk and gossip in there. My personal rule for the bathroom was "Do your business then leave."

"If Max kills Ella, it's all your fault, Iggy," I said.

"I doubt Max will _really _kill Ella," he replied. But he didn't look so sure.

* * *

Max POV

I checked to make sure there was nobody else in the bathroom before I rounded on Ella. "What. Are. You. Doing?" I asked her angrily.

"Talking to you?" she said.

I shook my head in shame. "My younger sister is turning as smart-alecky as me. I've rubbed off on you," I said regrettably.

"Ugh. I'm smart-alecky on my own terms. _Not _because you are," she protested.

I decided to get to the point and not beat around the bush, in case anyone was coming in soon."Iggy is two years older than you," I hissed.

"So?" Ella said defiantly.

"Then why are you flirting with him?" I said through gritted teeth.

Ella blushed. "You make it sounds so _dirty_." I glared at her. "I really like him," she said desperately.

"Why?" I asked bluntly.

"Well, he's funny and really really smart. And he can talk about himself in third person. And…" she said some more things, but I kind of ignored her, since I didn't really want to hear my little sister gush over the good qualities of my friend.

I scrutinized Ella. "Do you just like him for his looks?"

"N-no," Ella stuttered. She sighed. "I mean, that's kinda part of it, but it's not the biggest reason at all," she said adamantly.

"You sure?"

"Of course I'm sure of my own feelings. I'm not like you an—" she stopped herself before she could say anymore."

"Me and who?"

"You and um…" Ella really was a slow thinker sometimes. I scrutinized her."I'm going to let it slide for now, but just know that I'm going to spring this on you unexpectedly one day and I will force you to answer me," I threatened.

Ella looked relieved. "Fair enough," she conceded.

"Ella, promise me you won't fall head over heels for him unless you're sure he can make you happy," I said seriously.

"I may be stupid sometimes, but not _that _stupid."

"He's older than you. That means he might try to _do_ things you're not ready for."

Ella held up a hand. "I don't want to discuss that with you."  
I smirked. "You and Iggy can continue with your little flirtation—" Ella brightened. In truth, I hadn't feely been _against _the idea of Ella and Iggy having a relationship—I just wanted to make sure the only reason Ella liked him wasn't because of his looks or because he was older."But if I see any sign that he's not good for you, I'm withdrawing my permission," I added.

Ella snorted. "How overprotective, Max."

I ignored her comment. "And if he hurts you, I'm going to be opening a huge can of whoop-ass on him."

* * *

Fang POV, A Few Days Later

"Did you, like, hear?" Nudge asked with a little glint in her eye. It was after school and Iggy had been talking to Max and me about some bomb he was going to make later. Ella, who probably wanted to talk to Iggy, was walking toward us, with Nudge behind her.

"What?" Iggy asked warily. I hoped Nudge was going to say something interesting because if she started talking about celebrity gossip, I was so outta there.

Nudge's voice dropped down to a whisper. "Lissa went home with Sam yesterday after a party and they got in trouble for making out before school started today."

Ella rolled her eyes. "They didn't really get _in_ trouble. Lissa's dad donates to the school. All they got was a warning. Money can buy anything. Just shows how corrupt the educational system is."

Max glanced at me to see my reaction. She didn't look surprised when she heard what Nudge said at all. Wait…maybe she already knew about this. Yeah, thanks for not telling me my ex-girlfriend got together with my ex-best friend.

Iggy looked like he was struggling to remember something. "Didn't Lissa's old boyfriend Nick move away or something?" Yet another _look _was exchanged between Max and me. Both of us wanted to burst out saying, "No, he didn't move away. He's right _here._"

"Yeah," Max lied.

"Wasn't he a total man-whore?"

Max grinned. "Yup," she said with obvious relish that was probably directed at me. Thing was, I didn't really care that Lissa was dating Sam. I was kind of mad, but I'm surprised that she had lasted a whole month without hooking up with anyone until now. At least she waited until after I was "gone" to do so. Guess I didn't like her as much as I thought I did, because I was …okay… with this.

"But he was so hot!" Nudge squealed. This conversation was quickly getting awkward… Max made a face.

"He was, but he was a jerk," Ella said. "Max used to be friends with him."

Of course, that made Nudge practically attacked poor Max in her haste to find out all the details. "OMG! You _were?_"

Max shifted from foot to foot. "That was a long time ago…"

"How was it?" Nudge asked, practically jumping up and down in excitement.

"How was what?"

"Being friends with who used to be the hottest guy in school," she answered in a 'duh' kind of voice.

"It was…okay?" Max looked to me for help, but I shook my head. This was too interesting…

"Only OKAY? I would give anything to have been the friend of someone that hot," Nudge sighed.

"Hot but brainless," Ella added.

…And of course, they go back to saying bad things about me. I wished I could tell them that I was _right here _and that I was _listening to them talk about me_.

"I guess. I mean, he was pretty stupid for not realizing that Lissa would cheat on him," Said Nudge.

WHAT?  
Max didn't look as surprised as I was, but she still looked like that statement had caught her off guard. "She cheated on him?" she asked to make sure she had heard right.

"Apparently, now that Nick is gone, she's telling everyone that she was cheating on him with Sam all along. I think she expects people to be impressed that she managed to cheat on the most popular guy in school." Ella laughed.

"I always knew Lissa was dumber than a horse's ass," Iggy said.

"How long?" I asked.

"How long she was cheating on him?" Nudge replied. I nodded as confirmation. "I think a few months." If my life could be written in emoticons, right then, it would be like O.O.

Ella giggled and grabbed Iggy's hand. "I have to show you something, Iggy."

Iggy shrugged and allowed himself to be dragged along. Nudge followed after them.

As soon as they were gone, Max said, "I'm sorry."

I was genuinely surprised. "What are you sorry for?"

"I'm just trying to be sympathetic to the fact that Lissa cheated on you," she grumbled.

**(Prepare for the worst emotional paragraph I have ever written.) **The shock of that information was wearing off now, and I felt…nothing. I hadn't thought Lissa would cheat once on me, but now, I couldn't really bring myself to care that she had. She was representative of my past life. I wasn't ready to let go of it fully, but maybe I could do it piece by piece. Starting with Lissa.

"Maybe you were just too blinded by her…feminine charms to see what a bitch she was," Max suggested as if reading my mind.

"I'm guessing that's a euphemism for the fact that I just wanted her in bed?" I asked wryly.

"I'm surprised you know what a euphemism is."

"Why does everyone assume I'm stupid?"

"Maybe you are," Max joked. "If it makes you feel any better, I've always thought that Lissa didn't deserve you."

I smiled—something I rarely did—at Max. "Yeah, it does, actually. It does."

**AN: This story's gonna be pretty long, and I apologize. The first few months will be written with a lot of detail, but I'll just skim over the later ones. But the story will still be long, I think. Tell me if I'm going into too much unnecessary detail. I'm just one of those people who can't make things short… **

**Bob: *looks at the music video for Helena by My Chemical Romance* Urgh!**

**Me: What about her? Yeah, everyone knows she's creepy.**

**Bob: *shakes head* Urgh! (translation: I think she's related to me!)**

**Me: Huh…now that you think about it…she does kind of have the same eyes as you…and skin tone…and OH SHIT, BOB THE VAMPIRE ZOMBIE IS FREAKING RELATED TO HELENA IN THE MUSIC VIDEO! **

**(Yeah, I've been on a total MCR kick since Sunday)**

**Review?**


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